
Qass A'W- 
Book—J 



/ ^ 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 






V 

BRAINTREE, MASS., 



JUJ1.Y 4, 1876. 



PRINTED BY OBDER OF THE TOWX. 



BOSTON: 

ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PRINTERS, 

34 School Street. 

1877. 



A 



30-51 OOO. 



ORATIOX BY HOK F. A. HOBART. 



An American in a foreign land, speaking- of his own conn- 
try, wonld naturally dwell npon its national aspects, its 
history as a whole, its marvellous resources, extended do- 
main, considering those masculine traits that suggest and 
reveal force, renown, and results. Upon American soil the 
same individual will turn with warmer and tenderer emotions 
to the "spot of his (n'igin," and will he drawn by ties of 
affection to his home, to the town of his nativity, regarding 
all that concerns it-Avith minute and special interest. 

With such filial regard and affection let us recite, on this 
glorious anniversary, the story of the birth and growth of 
our venerable mother town. Tracing back this interesting 
narrative for two hundred and thirty-six years, we shall find, 

" A thousand fantasies 
Begin to throng into our memory, 
Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, 
And airy tongues, that sjdlable meu's names 
On sands, and stones, and desert wilderness." 

That vast scheme of colonization, comprehended and ad- 
vocated by Bacon, ^ and instituted by Raleigh^ with all the 
brilliance of romance in behalf of the Crown of England, 
had seized upon the main estuaries of the Atlantic shore 
between the French occupation of the Saint Lawrence^ in 
the north, and the lordly Mississippi in the south, — the 
discovery of which had proved both the glory and the grave 

1 Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. 238. • 

2 Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. 86. 
8 Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. 14, 



of tlio Spniiiard, Do Soto;' the Roanoko, Siisquohanna, 
and Delaware had been explored; the James. Piscataqua, 
and Saco had underijone experiments at settlement ; native 
chiefs had parlej'cd with Hudson on the North River, and 
that majestic stream had been opened to Dutch traffic. That 
"Wonderful traveller, whoso adventures read like a tale of the 
Arabian Xii^hts, had sailed this coast from Wessagusset to the 
Merrimack, and as Whittier, referring to Smith's visit to 
Capo Ann, informs us, — 

" Oil yonder rocky cape, Avhicli braves 
The stormy challoiiije of the waves, 
Mid tanirled vines and dwarfed wood, 
The hardy Anglo-Saxon stood "; 

giving in 1614 to this rugged land the name it boars to-da}', 
and to knowledge the first rude map of Xew I-Cngland.- 

These events had transpired, and the Pilgrims had for ten 
years lived under that governmental contract conceived on the 
deck of the "Mayflower," to afterwards become the charter 
and covenant of an empire, before the occurrence* of that 
innnediate emigration which preceded the advent of this 
town. And here it is l)ut just to say that the ground 
of earlier incident and preparation, for the maturing of this 
ancient town, has been already traversed hy diligent students, 
accomplished scholars, and eloquent orators, and our task 
to-day is simply to glean from a well-garnered harvest. -^ 

Before the English emigration of 1630, plantations Avere 
scattered over the lands in IMassachusetts Bay, then counted 
"the paradise of New England." 

Maverick was at East Boston, Thompson occupied an 
island off Squantum Neck, Blackstone was on the jieninsula,'' 
and Capt. Wollaston, in search of commercial advantages, 

1 Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. RO. 

2 See 3d, 4tli, 7th, and 8th chaps. Bancroft's Cen. Edition, History of the 
United States, with reference to early settlements by the English. 

8 Whitney's notes upon Qnincy, Lnnt's Second Centnry Sermons, C. F 
Adams's Town Hall Oration, at Braintree, in text, notes, and appendix, are very 
thorongh upon certain points of oiw preliminary history. 

* Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. 2GG. 



rested in this distinct locality a short time previous to his 
departure for Virginia. 

Stepping into his vacant place, and making the first 
permanent settlement in Massachusetts, after Plymouth, we 
have Thomas Morton,' of somewhat unpleasant reputation, 
who caused the primary memories of our vicinity to be 
somewdiat conspicuous for ribaldry and disorder. 

This frolicsome gentleman, on the very outpost of our 
civilization, was addicted to contraband trade and much 
intercourse with the ^' brew of Soma," and l)y his l)acchana- 
lian orgies, interspersed with aboriginal variations, he earned 
an unenvial)le notoriety. 

One of the rhymes of the " Wayside Inn " speaks of Sir 
Christopher, "Knight of the Holy Sepulchre," who wore, in 
the streets of Boston, — 

"Doublet and hose and boots complete, 
Priuce Eupert's hat and ostrich plume," 

passing his leisure hours with "roystering Morton, of 
Merry Mount," but who was afterwards " extradited " for 
his immoralities, proving, if the poet Longfellow is correct, 

"The first who furnished this barren land 
With apples of Sodom and ropes of sand " 

It must be admitted that our earliest landed proprietor, 
selling gunpowder and rum, and carousing with " y*^ savages," 
was of that order of citizen thought proper in these days " to 
send to the rcar,"'-^ and so Morton, very consistently, was 
ordered to be "put in the bilbows" and sent to England. 

It seems somewhat singular that this quiet, respectable, 
and sedate town, for more than two centuries pursuing a 
calm life of sobriety and integrity, should have been ante- 
dated by a loose, lawdess, and reckless barrister, and a 
cavalier who was a Jesuit in disguise, — men who, in their 
conduct and opinions, were guilty of everything obnoxious 

1 See Whitney's Quincy ; New England Memorial, pp. 136-138 ; Hutchin- 
son's History, A^ol. I, p. 32 ; also, C. F. Adams, Jr.'s, address at 250th annivei'sary 
of settlement of Weymouth, p. 30. 

- Hon. C. F. Adams refers to Morton as a " carpet-bagger." 



to tho devout settler, who came here out of hatred to prelacy 
aud the niauners of the court. 

\\'oUa;>tou, not tindinirthis point, as a "trading post," quite 
as protitahle and successful as such atfairs have proved on the 
frontiers in our times, left for richer pastures, his name, 
however, adherinu: to this range of land. 

The attempt to change the name to "Merry Mount," 
though signahzed with unbecoming revel, was futile, as was 
also the short-lived ctlort of Endicott to call the place 
" jNIount Dagon," whcu, in Christian wrath, he cut down the 
oft'ensive May-pole which stood on the particular elevation 
known from 1G25 to this hour as " Mount WoHaston." 

The first decade of the Massachusetts Colony developed 
great activity and progress, while it exhibited serious ditier- 
ences in material, and grave dissensions in spiritual atfairs. 

The year 1(528 found Salem struggliug for existence, with 
Endicott as its central tigure. Two 3'ears later Winthrop 
and Dudley sailed into waters, since made famous as a 
harljor of great maritime importance, having with them 
seven hundred associates. 

Dispersion soon colonized Lynn, INIalden, Charlestown, and 
Boston. Pynchon and Eliot located at Koxbnry ; Hooker, 
the "Light of the Western Churches," as history delights 
to call iiini, halted at Cauibridge before he felt called u[)()n 
"to go west" as far as Connecticut ; SaPstonstall and Phillii)s 
advanced to Watertown ; Ludlow^ planted at Dorchester, 
and according to Hubbard, twenty considerable towns were 
l)uilt and peopled shortly after 1630.^ The General Court 
had connneuced its sessions, and the ciders and church l>egan 
that authority which for a centur}' ruled the Xew World, as 
absolutely as crown and Parliament did the Old.- 

An attempt on the part of the magistrates to check exces- 
sive attendance on lectures and sermons, as injurious to the 
public "by a consu:n[)tion of time," was suppressed l)y the 

1 liancroff s Cen. Edition, 9th chajitor. 

■^ It i.s one of the traditions that Wackstoue left Boston, as lie said, "to get 
away from the tyranny of the Lord's brethren," as he left England to get rid of 
tlie "Lord's Bishops." 



church, though the movement seems to have accomplished 
its ol)iect, as I have heard of no account since then of any 
particular danger from inordinate church-going. 

Cotton, "an acute and subtle spirit," assistant pastor of 
the First Church, opposing rotation in office, advocated the 
notion, somewhat in vogue now, that the right of an otticial to 
his place was like that of a "proprietor in a freehold."' 
AVinthrop led the magistrates and the church party, and w\as 
vanquished by Henry Vane, the brilliant young statesman, 
who, acting with the freemen of Boston, precipitated the 
grand contest, based on the idea of the " absolute control of 
the majority in civil affairs." True to this promise of his 
youth, Vane afterwards died gloriously on the scaffold in 
England, a martyr to liberty.^ v Another prominent dis- 
turbance in the young colony, upon religious matters, had 
an important bearing upon the destinies of this town. 
What may very properly be called the first or the original 
" \^'oman's Club," so far as this hemisphere is concerned, 
was held in Boston in 1636 or thereabouts, at the house of 
Mrs. Hutchinson,^ and there Avas nestled and nurtured that 
heated controversy called by its advocates " the conflict of 
faith against works," but stigmatized by its adver.saries as 
the " antinomian heresy," and honored by the historian 
Bancroft "^ as being the legitimate fruit of the Protestant idea, 
and a bold vindication of "the right of private judgment." 
This division of sentiment led to the assignment of Rev. 
John Wheelwright to preach at " the church to be gathered 
at Mount Wollaston " in 1636, the territory having been 
annexed to Boston in 1634.^ Having, a year after his set- 

1 Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. 286. 

2 See Appendix B, note 1. 

3 The male members of the church of Boston had been accustomed to convene 
in order to report and debate on the discourses delivered on Sundaj'S. Mrs. 
Hutchinson, a very extraordinary woman, established a similar meeting for her 
own sex. See Hannah Adams's History of New England, p. 58. 

^ Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. 297. Also, for the most correct idea 
of this important controversy, which did so much towards the formation of 
Braintree, read tlie address of Hon. C. F. Adams, at dedication of Braintree Town 
Hall, in 1858. 

6 See Hancock's Cen. Sermon. Also, Hannah Adams's History of New 
Engrland. 



tloment over the Mount Wollaston flock, in ;i niarkid sonncn 
clefending the " Cv>ven;iiit of ujracc," inaiiitaiiicd the ohliga- 
tioii to :i " liighcr law" as against human institutions, ii 
doctrine tliat became the political faith and ci'eed of states- 
men of the stamp of Sumner and Seward and Andrews in 
another generation. Wheelwright was deemed insubordinate 
by the majority, and was banished to New Hampshire, where 
he reported a year alter. 

Koger Williams, the "apostle of intellectual liberty," 
retiring from the same inflexible nuijority, had wandered 
through the forests of jVIassachusetts to sow the seeds of a 
''free, full, and absolute libcrlj' of conscience" on the shores 
of the Narragansett. A large number of the members of 
the Boston church being imbued with these seditious doc- 
trines were disarmed and disfranchised, and being allowed 
to receive allotments of the Wollaston lands, they removed 
thither in 1639,^ receiving, on petition to the General Court, 
a grant to set up as the town of Braintree in 1 (MO.- 

To asc(!rtain deflnitely the reason why this name was 
selected is a ditficult if not impossible matter. A body of 
people known as the "Braintree Cvdony,"^^ of which Hooker 
was the leader and master, were on the WolIast(;n lands in 
1G32-3. ' 

AVhethev, as Savage (the editor of \\inthrop) and John 
Quincy Adams held at a later day, a portion of the colony 
remained after the n*iain part had removed to Cambridge, or 
whether, after the Hooker company left for Hartford, some 
came back to Wollaston, as Lunt suggests, or whether, as 
C. F. Adams intimates, the great miniber who settled here, 
because of the Boston disruption, would be most likely to 

1 August 3, LSliO. In Boston "eight men were chosen to consider of Jlount 
WoHastoM husiness and how there may he a town and chnroli there with tlie con- 
sent of this towns inhahitants." See Adams's Town HaU Oration, Appendix, p. ii.i. 

2 At a General Court of lilectioa in Boston, May 1:5, 1(J40, the petition of the 
inhahitants of Mount WoUaston was voted and granted them to he a town, accord- 
ing to agreement with Boston, and the town is to he called liruintrcc. 

8 Governor Wintlnop in liis .Journal, under date of August U, 1();?2, mentions 
that the Braintree company (which had hegun to sit down at Mount Wollaston,) 
by order of Court removed to Newton. These were Hooker's company. 



furnish the name, being the parties most interested in the 
choice, is an atFair more of conjecture than proof; Hhe weight 
of evidence, however, is with the presumption that from the 
time of the Braintree company, in 1(J32, Wollaston was 
never without settlersf^ and if this view is sound, as they 
were the " oldest inhal)itants," they were likely to be instru- 
mental in determining the name. But without troubling 
onrselves further as to how it came about, 1 think there has 
never been any complaint that the selection was not entirely 
satisfactory. 

^ In 1G40 our municipal existence commenced, with fifty 
square miles of territory,^ but with a population small in 
mnnbers- as the town nucleus. L 

To understand well the subsequent career of Braintree, it 
is necessary to understand the stern, earnest, religions 
colonist who was here established. He has been aspersed, 
bitterly and violently, for his l)igotry and intolerance, and 
the shaft of ridicule, often sharpened by the blade of envy, 
has been driven at him by scotfer and satirist, while feebler 
weapons have been aimed at him by the weaker sentimen- 
talist. A\'heelwright in exile, and Williams in retreat, have 
been })ointed to as examples of martyrdom ; and the isolated 
era of witchcraft has been allowed to eclipse, with some, the 
lustrous record of the early Massachusetts colonist. As we 
owe to him all we have of corporate worth and local char- 
acter, we should review, with pride, those elemental traits 
that have done so much, not only for us, but for mankind. 
^The founders of Braintree and its sister toAvns were true 
disciples of that profound and logical theologian, John 
Calvin, of whom Bancroft says he announced ''a stern and 
militant form of doctrine, lifting men above hinnan limita- 
tions, bringing them into innnediate dependence on God, 
whose eternal, irreversi))le choice is made by himself alone, 
not arbitrai'ily, but according to his own highest wisdom and 
justice." That was the faith of the colonist, and no other 

1 See Appendix B, note 2. Also, see 0. F. Adauis's Town Hall Oration, ji. o,'!. 

2 Appendix to Adams's Oration, p. Gl, gives list of grants, with names in aliilia- 
betical order. 



10 

would liiivc kept civilization alive in Xew Enirlantl. Others 

had crossed the perilous ocean, seeking adventure, irratifying 

ambition, amassing wealth and estate. The colonists ln-casted 

the trials, tempests, and dangers of the sea in the interests 

of the soul, and on his lip>, "Thus saith the Lord" was both 

authorit}' and benediction. These men were of English 

Puritan stock, the most remarkable body of men, says 

Macaulay, ■'perha[)s which the world has ever produced, — 

a body to whose courage and talents mankind has owed 

inestimable obligations." In England the Puritans drove the 

theatrical and eti'eminatc dress of the courtier and noble out 

of fashion ; they purged literature of its foulness, and made 

life and manners abroad more serious and real. It took 

precisely these men to face the hostile savage, bear up 

aguinst the bleak and Avlthering climate, grapi)le with the 

meagre and unwilling soil, and wring from this impromising 

domain institutions as enduring as the granite on which they 

were reared. It was such men that Mrs. Browning had in 

mind when she made her heroes declare, — 

" Then we act to a purpose, we s[)nug up erect, 

"We will tiune the wild mouths of the Avilderuess steeds, 
"We will plouijii up the deep in the ships double-decked, 
"We will l)uild the great cities and do the great deeds." 

And they have done all this, honor to their memory ! Forty 
millions of people to-day unite to praise them, and nearly 
forty States bless the civilization which has come from them. 
Amid the acclaim and hosannas that herald the virtues of the 
Pilgrim and Puritan, we can forget, if not foi'give, those moral 
and intellectual dwarfs, who would withhold the crown, and 
sully the fame, of those who laid the foundations of ouv town 
and of New p]ngland, breathing into the great lvci)ublic 
itself the breath and life of freedom. 

"With striking consistency the meeting-house, with us, 
antici[)ated the nHmici[)ality, and we had "brethren" before 
we had townspe()i)le. It was so with the parent town, and 
with those divisions that came in after years, the "house of 
Ciod'" was always the forerunner of the "precinct" and the 



11 

corporation. The Puritan stamp and "sign manual" is 
unmistakable in all our civil as well as religions life. The 
first words that meet the eye upon opening the ancient 
records of Braintree are "School Fund," i and the Act that 
introduces our town's existence designates i)roperty held for 
purposes of education ; and from the year 1645, Avhen the 
" Free Latin School "- was established, till now, learning has 
found a home and friends here. Nothing can exceed the 
simplicity, fidelity, and rigid economy of our early town 
management, and a century passes with an unvarying repe- 
tition of ordin.iry transactions, by which the roots strike 
deeper, the branches push out farther, the leaves become 
more numerous, as the town expands around its central 
points, — the Church, the School, and the Town Meeting. 

Much of the oversight, enterprise, and welfare of the com- 
munity has always been under the supervision of that especial 
Puritan ofHcor, tlie selectman. In the roll of honor, if not 
of fame, the selectman stands deservedly high, for the cus- 
todians of the treasure, and the judge of the development of 
the towns of New England, have been most hnportant factoi-s 
in its histcny. The debt which the country owes to these 
devoted, much-al)used, and generally ill-paid public servants 
will never be adjusted or fully appreciated, for nsually the 
selectman gets his reward, if at all, from a consciousness of 
duty well done. 

V For about thirty years the business of the town related to 
the protection of Richard Wright in his mill privilege, lay- 
ing out a footway from Goodman Penniman's to the meeting- 
house, over the "old bridge," providing that " noe inhabi- 
tante " shall sell land or house, Avithout consent of those hav- 
ing charge of town affairs, ordering the marsh to be improved 
for the "Elder's use," notifying those "Loving Brethren" 

1 In a note to Hancock's Cen. Sermon, William Coddington is referred to as 
"the munificent donor of our school lands," from whicli the town has reaped 
great benefit in good schools for many years past. This is the grant referred to in 
the first item of the town records. 

2 In 1735 the town petitioned the General Court " for something gratis for 
having had a Free Latin School for nearly ninety years." 



12 

:iii(l iiciiilihors not having " cattel " of their own that they 
inu.st not tak(! any " cattel " from other towns to feed on the 
Conuiinn, imposing a penalty of "nineteen shillings and 
eU'Vcn pence" for each three davs that a stranofer is harbored 
in the town wilhont authority, making the Common free to all 
legal inhabitants, and e(|uali/ing the interest in a grant of six 
thousand acres of land, made by the General Cou'l for the 
l)cneHt of the town. We shall hear of this "land grant" 
again, for it proved for a long time to be an elephant that 
Braintree could neither get rid of, or put to use. 

Six thousand acres of land, most anywhere in Massachu- 
setts to-day, would be a valuable legacy, but that amount of 
unimproved real estate, located among "red skins," did not, 
in ir»t)6, awaken any boisterous emotions of joy. 

In 11)72 the town allotted a "house and land for an orchard " 
that " shall stand as an acconnnodation and su[)ply to the min- 
istry " ; voting the minister eighty pounds a year, ">eventy- 
four in wood parte and corne," at county-rate price. In the 
same year a movement in the popular direction was made l)y 
having " an open town-meeting for the whole inhabitants," — a 
step tt)ward the time when individuality rather than property 
becomes the title to citizenship. 

Boundary altercations were an early experience of the 
town, l)ut were, as a rule, settled by amicable arrangement. 
Braintree originallv comprised an immense territorial extent, 
and in subsequent town formations, she was liberally sliced up 
by the executive. Carver, in l7o7 the town petitioned the 
General Court " for consideration for having had four thou- 
sand acres of land set otf to Milton," and this is but a speci- 
men of a series of dismcml)erments, which has befallen over- 
nuieh ani[)utated liraintree. 

The lirst litigation mentioned in the records, in which the 
town was a party, concerns the mill referred to at the tirst 
town-meeting. Gatclilfe, who succeeded l\iehard \\"rigiil, 
the miller of 1(IJ:(», had, by his neglect, evidently won the 
displeasure of the town; ))ut as he promised "by God's 
assistance," for himself and heirs, "to so improve said pond" 



13 

that the town "should have sufficient o^ruicluio;," a satisfac- 
tory issue was the result, and peace and " proper g-rist " were 
restored . 

In 1674 this mill was burned, making the first fire recorded 
in Braintree, if we except the conflagration of Morton's hal)i- 
tation, which was fired by order of the Court, — that lieing 
the summary manner of dealing with objectionalile haunts in 
that age. 

In 1679, there evidently beiug no "Indian Ring" in opera- 
tion in those days, an agreement was made with Wampatuck, 
the first tribal sachem of this region, for certain lands, the 
deed of which, the gift of Hon. C. F. Adams, is an interest- 
ing possession of this public building, and now hangs upon 
its walls.^ 

Between the years 1682 and 1697 the salary of the pastor 
of the cliurch appears to fluctuate, ranging from eighty to 
ninety pounds per annum, this sliding scale clearly indicating 
a division of sentiment, which finally culminated in the divi- 
sion of the society. To compromise this salary matter, a 
town vote was passed in 1(595 "to go to contribution ever}"- 
Sabbath, and if Mr. Fiske see cause to take up with what is 
so given he shall have it all, but if not, we engage that if the 
contribution falls short of eighty pounds money, we will 
make it u[) at the year's end, and if it be over and above, it 
shall go to the use of the town, and that every man shall 
give ^ul account to the Deacons what they give in." This 
plan probably would not have been approved by the man 
who said, "What he gave to the church was nothing to no- 
body." The selectmen, among their other duties, were 
ordered, by vote of the town, "to seat the meeting-house by 
appointing persons to their places." 

An innovation upon the ancient custom of church attend- 
ance was made in the year 1697, "by allowing, in ease any 
room was left after drawing up the men's seats with the 
Avomen's seats, in the meeting-house, that hy the consent of 
the selectmen, family pews might be built at private ex- 

1 See Appendix B, note 3. 



14 

pensc." This rndical chaiiiic ^vas undoubtedl}' ln-ouulit about, 
lu'canso of ihc alteration of the biiildiiifr, and probably broke 
u|) the absurd and nieaninirh^ss custom of the separation of 
the sexes at public Avorship. One freeholder certainly 
obtained u " hi.i>h " and elevated place in the synagoofue, hav- 
ing been allowed, by special vote, "the privilege of making 
a seat for his family upon the two beams over the pulpit, but 
not darkening the jjulpit." 

The items of expense audited for the year 1094 are as 
follows, viz. : — 

"Five i)ounds for John Belcher's weekly maintainance ; 
thirty shillings for keeping AVilliam Dimblebee ; twenty- 
five shillings for the ringing of the bell and sweeping of the 
meetiuir-house in ir)94 ; seven shillings to William Saville 
for Dimblebee's coffin ; eight shillings to constable for 
warning the town ; five shillings for the exchange of a 
town's cow to Sannud Spear ; and ten shillings to Thomas 
Bass for debt for ringing the bell formerly, this to be raised 
by rate." 

The town allowed, also, "twenty shillings for looking 
after the boys at meeting." The pay of the representative 
to General Court Avas fixed at six pounds per annum, and in 
those days was paid by the town. The State is more liberal 
in our day, and has given as high as seven hundred and fifty 
dollars a session to those self-sacrificing patriots who sit in 
the modern halls of wisdom. 

As an instance of the old style of s<juaring accounts, I 
find a receipt copied on the town records, of the school- 
master, Benjamin Thompson, who had literall}' grown gray 
at his task, and receiving only a yearly pittance of one 
hun(li-(Ml and fifty dollars, had got somewhat behindhand. 
The acknowledgment says : " Whereas there hath been an 
old reckoning upon the account of my service for many 
years which I have served them in ; that all may issue in 
love, and all other matters of dirt'erence ended, and all 
former accounts balanced, upon the clearing my debt to 
Jonathan Ilayward and Mr. Willard, in all being five 



15 

pounds. I do forever acquit and discharge the town of 
Brainti'cc, from all dues and demands, this being a mutual 
and everlasting discharge." I think there can be no doubt 
that after that receipt, the account might be considered 
as settled. 

It appears that in 1()97 certain parties from Boston, 
probably the "Boston Clique" of that period, laid claims to 
some disputed lands in Braintree, and seventy freeholders 
agree, by siguature, "to defend their ancient rights and 
oppose the pretenders iu a course of law." A year after, 
they made choice of four " loving friends " to look after the 
case. This act savors somewhat of a kind of labor latterly 
called " lobbying," only instead of " loving friends " such 
agents term themselves "members of the third house." 

The controverted grounds were known as the " Blue Hill 
Lands," and Boston rapacity was finally appeased, and she 
quitclaimed to the territory, on the payment of seven hundred 
pounds. 

An examination of the rather monotonous flow of town- 
meeting aflairs shows a different method of providing for the 
poor and insane from that now in practice with us. 

It sounds somewhat harsh and severe, and squints toward 
"ways that are dark," to read that the authorities "treated 
with Josiali Owen, to clear the towai forever of Ebenezer 
Owen's distracted daughter," especially as we never hear 
anything more in relation to her. It would be impossible 
not to l)ecome inteusely interested in the melancholy and 
mysterious misfortunes of Abigail Neale, whose condition is 
tragic, and whose fate is unknown. We learn first of this 
afflicted sister from an offer of the town of five pounds " for 
the healing of Abigail Neale, now underhand." 

One of the last acts of the seventeenth century, under 
date of January, 1()99, is an endeavor to become emancipated 
from the aforesaid Abigail Neale, l)y subsidizing a lioxhury 
man " five pouuds " to take her. Dr. Bayly, the man of 
Koxbury, does not "put in an appearance" to relieve the 
town of the Neale dispensation, and she is still a burden 



16 

upon its liMiids. The niiittcr i.s now al)S()r1)iii2-. As knowing 
nothing ot" her coini)!.!!!!! or liistory, the town problem soonis 
to l)e, \N'liat is to l)o done Avitli lier? But the nnisty records 
have a new charm in the pf)ssil)ility of solving the vexed 
question. In 1701 the town oti'ers Dr. Bayl}^ of Koxhury, 
''eight pounds more for keeping Abigail Neale, provided he 
takes up therewith and gives tlie town no further trouble." 
There appears a paxinent on an old account to John Xew- 
comb, of twelve shillings, "f. r keeping Abigail Neale." 
Neweonib also gets thirty shillings, by reason of Abigail. 
In 1702 and 1707 it is voted that the selectmen "discourse, 
if they see cause, with Samuel Bullard, of Dedham or 
Dorchester, in order to the care of Abigail Neale, to agree 
upon tei-ms following ; that is, to lay down twenty shillings 
in order to said cure, and to engage no more to helping than 
the eighteen pence per week. If in case a cure is performed 
that may prove sound foi- one Avhole year, then to give 
satisfaction for said cure not exceeding ten pounds, nor to 
pay such sum until twelve months have expired after the 
cure, and said twenty shillings to be a part of the said sum ; 
and if no cure be performed, to pay no more than said 
twenty shillings for the keei)ing."' This looks as though 
the town, in those days, could drive a close bargain, holding 
religiousl}' to tlu; motto, " \o ein-e, no pay." How vividly 
the sutl'erer must have realized, as she was bounctnl about, 
the truth of the lines, — 

" It is a poor relief we iraiii 
To change the pku-e ami keep the pain " 

Here we must drop the Ihial tear over the memory of our 
unhapp}' and sutfering Abigail, for the pages of the journal 
that thus far follow her sorrowing steps are silent concerning 
her evermore. 

The sahuy question, after nnu-h l)acking and tilling and 
" change of base," at last stands " ninety pounds for the 
minister, he tinding wood.'' A new churih association and 
meeting-house was the consecjuence of the exigencies of the 



17 

town's growth, aided 1)}' the serious disagreement in church 
matters. 

The town, with the solemnity of a recorded vote, recog- 
nized "the right of the congregation to worship God in the 
new meeting-house at the south end" ; and in 1707 the quar- 
rel concerning the school appropriations, that had arisen 
because of the division of the town into two "precincts," led 
to the appointment of a committee to reconcile the differ- 
ences, and a vote, " done in the name of peace and satisfac- 
tion," harmonized the difficulties, and Braintree went on 
peacefully, with its north and south precincts, each nearly 
equal in population and importance, and both starting off in 
excellent spirits and temper. It would surprise any one not 
familiar with the details of town government, to find how 
much attention has been o-iven in bv^one times to the animal 
kingdom. Much of the time of town-meetings is occupied 
during the first century and a half by such questions as pre- 
miums on bulls and boars, restrictions on stray swine, 
restraints on wandering rams, and bounties for the slaughter 
of blackbirds and squirrels. Year after year the annual ses- 
sion opens with these important subjects, which are voted in 
the affirmative, with creditable persistency. Increase of stock 
and protection for the somewhat scanty products of the New 
Eno;land fnrm were commanding matters in the struggling 
era of our fathers. How careful and far-sighted the town 
guardian was in discharging his duties may be inferred fi'om 
the regulation requiring of each school-boy, as his tribute to 
the temple of knowledge, "to cut one load of wood per 
annum." The "six thousand acre grant" ^ never having been 
marketed or located, is confirmed or again given to the town 
by the General Court in 1717, and for a number of years it 
proves a "bone of contention" to the town mind. It seemed 
impossible to divide or sell the grant to suit all concerned, 
and the votes on this question have a look as though some 
good Braintree people of that period had a sharp " eye for 
business " and a scent for a keen trade, for an attempt was 

1 See Appendix B, note 4. 
2 



18 

niiulc to limit the benefactions of the gift to those who would 
have heel) entitled to it under the tirst grant in HMW). This 
■svas, however, thought by the majority to be a "little thin," 
and it was voted down. For a peaceful settlement of the 
alfair, it was decided to give the town one half the proceeds, 
ordering that ''all the inhabitants that paid charges in 1715 
shall have property in the remainder." But this did not 
settle the irrepressible contlict, for in 1726, in order again to 
secure a more peaceful settlement, it was determined that 
the lands l)e divided as equally as possible between the two 
precincts, "to be divided and disposed of by each precinct 
respectively, from time to time forever hereafter," and this 
turns out to be a finality. In 1750 the town of New Brain- 
tree was chartered by the State, and settlers from the old 
town went there, where these lands had previously been 
located ; and this pleasant agricultural town, in the " heart of 
the Commonwealth," may be claimed as one of our success- 
ful colonies. At this point we can learn wisdom from the 
past. It was a period of great business depression through- 
out the Province, and to relieve it, the -tinanciers then in 
power resorted to the fatal policy of inflation, increasing the 
volume of paper money, or rather medium, for paper never 
can be money unless redeemable. The cause of the com- 
mercial prostration was further extended by the issue of 
"Bills of Credit," by the Province, portions of which were 
placed with the towns, and by them loaned on security. ^ 
Braintree, in 1721, took her proportion of this unsubstantial 
circulation, and when England paid Massachusetts the money 
she had expeuded in the war with the French, these "bills" 
were redeemed, the "old tenor," or the issue prior to 1740, 
at the rate of "forty to one," a later issue at the rate of 
"eleven for one." After a fixed date all contracts were 
based on "gold and silver," and the currency, under this 
arrangement, was termed " lawful money." The universal 
experience and testimony of those who have gone before us, 
ou the direful road of forced expansion, should now make us 
1 See Appendix B, uote 5. 



19 

very earnest for <i speedy return to the only cnrreet linancial 
policy the world has yet invented, "hard or hiwt'al nione\'." 

Situated on the Monatiquot Kiver, in the east part ot" the 
town, are the remains of a dam or building, once known as 
the Iron Works. The right to construct this industry Avas 
given to John Winthrop, Jr., in 1643, and with his asso- 
ciates he built the furnace that, with changing fortunes, was 
in a flourishing condition as the property of Thomas Vinton 
in 1721.^ But at that time it was found that the dam of 
Furnace Pond interfered with the inalienaljle right of the 
freeman to his fish, as it ol)structed the passage of the multi- 
tudinous herring in their spawning expedition, and a some- 
what bitter and vigorous Avar Avas Avaged in behalf of the 
alcAvives against the foundry. The contest raged violently 
for eleven years, and in 1736 the deadly bloAv was struck : 
the dam Avas demolished, the stream cleared of obstructions, 
and the iron interest yielded to the all-conquering herring. 
Most of the sea-coast towns of Ncav England have indulged 
in "fish fights," and the nimble alewife has played an active 
part in our legislative annals. 

The predisposition of the " sovereigns of Braintree " in 
those days to stand by fish, " through thick and through 
thin," manifested itself very lately, when an endeavor AA^as 
made by some of our public-spirited citizens to stock Avith 
bass one of our local ponds. Remembering the uprising 
of and for herring, from 1720 to 1730, and the fate of the 
" old forge," at the earliest symptom of discontent the " I'ass 
Ring" of 1872 liegan to Aveaken, and had under consideration 
for a time a proposition to sell their rights to the toAvn, and 
quietly and perhaps Avisely al)audon the field, or rather pond, 
thus leaving the "hornpouts" once more to reign supreme. 

Still farther south the tide of population floAved, until by 
legislative consent the settlement upon the " Cocheto " Avas 
permitted to become a " precinct," and Avith the usual hin- 
drances that attend all town alterations, Braintree ultimately 
recognized three centres, known as the North, Middle, and 
1 See Appendix B, note 6. 



20 

Sontli precincts. At the start, the yoiiiis: mem!)er was treated 
a little roughl}^ for we tiiid the town voting down, in 1728, 
a proposition to allow "the schoohnaster of the sonth part 
to keep school some part of the time in the new precinct." 
The new precinct then asked " whether the town wonld abate 
its proportion of the charge of the other schools in the town, 
provided they wonld maintain one among themselves," and 
on this also, the town "voted in the negative." This spirit of 
seltishncss, however, did not last, for the proper edncational 
facilities were not long withheld l)y a town always noted for 
its devotion to the common or free school system. 

Motions to divide the town were offered and rejected in 
1728 and 1756; bnt after the selectmen were taken from 
difl'erent sections, allowing a just representation in affairs, 
the agitation of separation was hushed for nearlx' sixty years. 

The selection of the meeting-house in the middle precinct 
as the place for holding the town-meetings was assented to 
with unanimity and cordiality, not only because of its cen- 
trality,^ but if hearsay in this case is evidence, because of its 
proximity to Ebenezer Thayer's, whose "open house" made 
it a pojjular resort on election and other pul)lic days.- The 
State constable has, of late years, ]>een the subject of some 
discussion with us, but the town constable evidently gave 
much more uneasiness in the days that are gone. By the 
records, it is clear that the constal)ulary duties then were not 
sought after with much zest. To refuse service, when elected 
constable, made the recusant liable to a fine of "five pounds," 
and the declinations were so general, that (juite a revemie 
came to the treasury, if the dues Avere collected. AVhether 
it was the habit of the " independent voters " of that era to 
elect persons who were certain to decline, in order to get the 

' In the olil meeting-house, located where is now Dr. Rtorr.s'.s or Emer.'son's 
church, which was huilt in 175'J, and torn down in 1S"J8, aU tlie meetings of the 
town were liehl when aU its imiiortant actions were taken, and it w:us there that 
the Quincys, Cranchs, and Adamses i)articipated. 

2 In the old " Eben Thayer house," very near the meoting-liouse, it was the 
custom, — and is remembered hy many now living, — all hands used to meet after 
election of town officers, representatives, etc., and have a grand treat all round. 



21 

forfeiture, cannot be accurately known ; but it certainly has 
that appearance, and the matter was not properly adjusted 
until the constables were adequately paid for their services. 

No one can faithfully scan the town books, without observ- 
ing the exceeding vexation that grew out of the stones on 
the "common" hinds. The authorities remonstrated, forbade, 
and pursued the trespassers who filched the wood and stone 
of the town. It was a struggle of more than fifty years in 
settlement. A price was fixed for the " stones by load," and 
that did not work ; the price was doubled, and still there 
was trouble. Committees were appointed to look after the 
property and the pilferers, yet the difliculty went on. It 
was attempted to divide the estate by "polls " ; even that did 
not succeed. The lands Avere "leased," by order of the town, 
but after a while the "lessees" of the "South Common or 
Ministry Lands" petitioned for relief from their agreement, 
giving as a reason "that during the whole time of the lease, 
they had labored under the greatest discouragements, inas- 
much as every attempt on their part to build a stone wall 
about the property " was frustrated by " certain unknown and 
evil-minded persons," "who, as fast as we built up the wall 
by day, did in the night time throw the same down " This 
petition resulted in a vacation of their lease, and subse- 
quently the " common lands " w^ere sold. This was before 
the "quarries," of which they made a part, became famous 
by making it a rival with ice, as one of the most extensive 
products of New England traffic. Though the pastures of 
Braintree supplied in 1752 the stones for the l)uilding 
of King's Chapel, in Boston, it was not until the monu- 
ment on Bunker Hill was in process of erection, that the 
granite of this locality l>ccame celebrated and so generally 
utilized. 

Our earnest temperance reformers will learn with regret 
that, in the year of our Lord 1761, the town did not have 
that sense of the great evil of intemperance which now 
wisely prevails. It was in that year decided to ap[)r()bate an 
innholder for each precinct, and the town voted, " That the 



22 

])ors()ns wlio nro njiprobntod for innholclers, for tlio coniiiifr 
xrnw ol)li(lii"e tluMiibclvcs by written iiistriinuMits, under their 
' liimds ;md seals,' to retail si)iritnoiis liquors to the town 
iiiliahitaiits, as they shall have oeeasiou therefor, at the same 
priee by the gallon or stnaller quantities, as the same arc usu- 
ally sold, by retail, in the town of Boston, and upon the 
l)erformance of the aljove condition there be no person or 
persons approbated l)y the seleetmen as retailers." It took a 
hundred years to tind out that licensing the sale of rum, 
whethci' furnished as low as " Boston prices " or not, is as 
orave a mistake, if not crime, as an intelligent connnunity 
can commit. 

The year 1761 closed the life of Deacon John Adams, Avho 
ficts a continuous, if not eventful, part in this story. Nothing 
strikes the searcher through the archives of a New England 
town with more force than the sturdy, unostentatious demean- 
or of those Avho filled the minor stations of usefulness. They 
are the men of the neighborhood, and at their posts are as 
true and constant as those higher and more celebrated offi- 
cials, who win the laurels of history. Long service is the 
evidence alike of their capacity and integrity. The names of 
(^uincy and Thayer represent more than a century and a 
quarter of service, for this single town, at the General Court. 
John (^uincy was chosen forty times as representative, 
Ednumd and other Quincys serving in the same and other 
capacities.^ Col. Ebenezer Thayer was elected rei)resenta- 
tive seventeen times, besides being one of the governor's 
Couneil,2 and his son. Gen. Ei)enezer Thayer, served at 
court twenty years, ^ was councillor, senator, and the first 
shei-iTT of Norfolk County. 

]\Iinot Thayer, one of the patriarchs of the town and 
beloved of all, according to Vinton, was chosen represent- 

1 See Appendix B, note 7. 

2 Thayer' .s FaTiiily Memorial, p. l.'^O. 

8 Tliayer's Family IMeniorial, p. 140, say.s : "Hon. Ebenezer Tlinyer served 
the town many years as town cl(!rk and troasnror; was chosen tlieir representative 
twenty years; was senator for Norfolk County for .several year.s; was chosen and 
served as couucillor, aud was a[)puiutud lirst shoritf of the county of Njrfolk." 



23 

titive thirty times. i Dr. Alden — and no better autliority 
exists — says, " The Thayers were the dukes of Monatiqiiot, in 
the days of the patriarchs." Of this trustworthy class was 
Deacon John Adams, whose sterling qualities and virtues 
have been transmitted, and whose descendants of the fourth 
remove, with this generation, take creditable places in law, 
literature, learning, aud statesmanship. 

In 1714 Joseph Adams, grandson of Henry Adams, whose 
son Henry was first clerk of the town, is recorded among the 
town officers, as surveyor of highways, and for two years he 
is one of the selectmen. His son, John Adams, is "sealer 
of leather" in 1722, eminently suited for his duties, being by 
occupation a cordwainer.^ In 1724 he is one of the ty thing- 
men ; in 1727 he is chosen constal)le, and does not refuse to 
serve. In 1734 Ensigu John Adams is made selectman; 
later, Lieut. John Adams is reported as having disposed of 
the "town's powder," and in 1740 Lieut. John Adams is 
selectman; from 1742 to 1749 he is lieutenant and select- 
man ; and in 1752, 1753, 1754, 1755, and 1758 he is Deacon 
John Adams and selectman. 

In 1759 a committee was appointed to view the "way" 
through Deacon John Adams's land. In these days Avhen 
we hear so much of " jobs " and " contracts " in modern under- 
takings, it is refreshing to notice the unsophisticated manner 
of carrying on public improvements in the days of " lang 
syne." The records give the report of the committee, which 
is as follows : — 

" The Committee having been upon the spot on Deacon 
John Adams's land, do find that one part of the old road on 
his land will be much to his Damage, to esta1)lish the same, 
and whereas it was his Property, aud he was not notified 
when laid out, and hath never been satisfied for the same, 
doth at this day offer to the town a more strafe road, on 
which he hath bestowed nuich Labour, as we see, aud offers 

1 A note to Vinton's Memorial says of Minot Tliayer: " He was representative 
of Braintree abont tliirty years, and lie was very popular." 

2 Extract from ancient records of Braintree. 

♦ 



24 

still to Itpstow more ; niul it is to be Remcnibcrcd that the 

town is at no chai'uo, in fencinir of said ^vay, so that upon the 

Avholc we think that an}' Person, niakiiii!; it his own case, 

Avould think it meet not to be heard, and favorably answered 

by the town, so Ave saj' it may be "well for the town to give 

np the old Road, so far as to make the new Road more 

straight. 

"SAMUEL BASS, 

BENJAMIN BEAL, 
CALEB HOBAKT, 

" Committee. 
" August, 1.°, 17r,9." 

Great as the name has since been made by most distin- 
guished men living and dead, let us turn, Avith profound 
reverence, to that plain selectman, Avho is the type and sample 
of th()s(^ traits of chaiacter, to Avhom the country owes the 
sincerest recognition. Like the rocks of our OAvn hills, older 
than the stones Avith Avhicli the pyramids Avere laid, they are 
still undecayed, because their particles, Avelded, fused, inter- 
locked, and clinched in the fires of imknoAvn ages, can only be 
destroyed l)y the same elements that fashioned them ; so these 
men, fashioned and fused by discipline, and Avelded by calm 
self-control, are of that indestructible composition, that 
per|)etnates families and makes the enduring g"randeur of 
nations. 

Our toAvn, noAV three distinct connnunities, each rcA'olving 
al)out that natural Puritan pivot, the Christian church, has 
groAvn in wealth, numbers, and inliuence. Its highAvays are 
greatly extended, its boundaries determined, and it is pre- 
paring to take its i)art in tlie startling scenes of Avar, the suc- 
cessfid termination of Avhich a numerous posterity, from 
ocean to ocean, this day commemorates Avith unbounded 
delight, and demonstrations of gratitude and rejoicings. 

The Braintrce records^ breathe and burn Avith undimin- 
ished ardor and action, as the mighty conflict for freedom 
progrt'sses. Fealty to England is urged in name, to the last 
1 See Ai)pendix P, note 1. 



25 

moment, though principles are announced and advocated that 
could never be nurtured in the atmosphere of monarch3\ 

The brave and patriotic town echoed every sentiment that 
upheld the assertions of liberty, and responded to every 
demand for co-operation against the aggressions of the 
Crown. 

In 17(35 Braintree remonstrated in vigorous language con- 
cerning the nefarious Stamp Act. In 1768, considering the 
"decay of trade," it w^as voted, "That this Town will use 
their utmost endeavor, and enforce those endeavors by Ex- 
ample, in suppressing Extravagance, Idleness, and Vice, and 
promoting Industry, Economy and good Morals." In order 
to prevent the unnecessary exportation of money, of which 
the province had been of late much drained, it was further 
voted, "That this tow^n will by all prudent means, discounte- 
nance the use of foreign superfluities, and encourage the 
manufactures of this Province." 

This determination Avould not exactly please the " free- 
trade " doctrinaires of the present day. The same year 
Josiah Quincy and Ebenezer Thayer were sent as delegates 
to join the committees of "Towns in Convention," they being 
instructed in cautious terms "that no undutifulness to his 
Majesty, or disrespect to his Parliament is meant," and a day 
of humiliation and prayer was appointed by the town, in 
which the dissenting churches unite. 

In 1773 the town adopts resolutions on our "rights and 
privileges," in which the idea of taxation without approval is 
firmly condemned, the town declaring " that it is essential to 
the great end of the greatest good of the Avhole, that all laws 
be by the consent of the people," also that they " shall readily 
join not only with our l)retliren of this Province, but through- 
out the wide extended continent, in every lawful, just, and 
consiilulional manner, for recovering and preserving inviolate 
all our civil and religious rights and privileges." 

In 1774 a committee was appointed to draft a covenant for 
the town, and a vote was carried for a general "Provincial 
Convention" to c(msider the "distress of the country." 



20 

In October, 1774, the town indiiriinntly denies a charge of 
persecution against members of tlic English Church, pro- 
chiiming its readiness to allow "private judgment" to all. 
The resolve of 1774, of the Committee of Correspondence 
of several Suffolk towns, with reference to military material, 
was adopted, and in October, 1774, delegates were sent to 
the Provincial Congress, and the "precincts" of the town 
were ordered to regulate the militia, agreeable to its recom- 
mendations. In 1775 a vote was passed to send one delegate 
to the Provincial Congress, and at the same time tlu^ town 
appoints on committee, one colonel, one captain, one deacon, 
one doctor, and three plain freeholders to instruct him as to 
his duty, and they advise him to aid "in preserving the line 
of the defensive." In January, 1775, an clal)orate military 
organization was accepted by the town. A movement was 
made for the encouragement of minute-men a few months 
later, and in March the committee reported a resolution or 
covenant, the third article of which provides " that we will 
neither purchase or employ au}^ slave imported since the tirst 
day of December last, and will wholly discontinue the 
slave-trade, and Avill neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor 
will we hire our vessels, or sell our commodities or manufac- 
tures, to those who are concerned in them." 

It is thus to the eternal credit and honor of Braintree that 
she, so far in advance of i)ublic sentiment, expressed her cen- 
sure of the iniquity of human slavery, condemning the insti- 
tution which afterwards sought, in an hour of madness, to 
destroy that fair habitation of liberty, then being founded and 
reared. Whether Parson Niles of the "middle precinct," the 
owner himself of slaves, the burial mounds of M'hich, in a 
retired locality, arc well remembered by men of middle age, 
relished this outbreak against the system he upheld, is uncer- 
tain, but the "pews yveva right" if the pulpit was not.' 

In March, 1776, a "Committee of Safety" was chosen, and 

> " Father Niles (Dr. Samuel) was the owner of shives hj^ whoso hthors he car- 
ried on liis farm at liemheba, wlicre tlieir dust now reposes in the shive's hurying- 
giouud on its border, without a stone to warn the passing traveller to tread 
lightly ou their ashes." — Dr. Ahlen at Fiftieth Anniversary of Dr. iitorrs. 



27 

in Jul}^ the cry was " On to Cnnacla ! " with the same iinfortu- 
iiate result that the premature frenzy of "On to Richmond ! " 
l)roug-ht on their descendants eighty-five years afterwards. 
Provision was made to secure the service of every twenty-fifth 
man, in accordance with official resolves. Those in the Con- 
tinental army, who marched out of the town before the first 
day of June, 1775, were exempted from taxation, and heavy 
premiums were offered to those " who euirao-ed to o-q to New 
York" in compliance with the regulation of the Continental 
Congress. 

Inscribed in the records we find, in 1776, the text of the\ 
"Declaration of Independence," thus signalizing in the most 
emphatic manner the early adoption of that immortal instru- 
ment, as a political creed, l>y the people of Braintree. 

John Adams, lawyer, son of Deacon Adams, of whom 
mention has been made, sleeping in his father's house in 
1755, experienced the shock of an earthquake, that in another 
quarter of the world was the occasion of a memorable calam- 
ity. Little did John Adams apprehend that he was soon to 
take a prominent share in a political commotion and earth- 
quake, that Avas to dislocate and rend the proudest nation on 
earth, and shake the foundations of the whole political and 
civilized glol)e. Upon this most exciting and important 
drama he was about to enter. 

He remarks in his diary that, as surveyor of highways, 
he reported on the sale of the North Common. He was 
selectman for two years, resigning because of business, and 
received a vote of thanks from the town. He was one of the 
committee of the town to express dissent to the Stamp Act, 
and he put into the plea that sinew and strength, which made 
it the model for other tow^ns. This energetic document 
reiterates the " loyalty of the people to the king," and their 
"friendship to all their fellow-subjects of Britain," and it 
conchides with advice and reflections, applicable to the pres- 
ent condition of affairs. Let us ponder as we read : — 

" We cannot too often inculcate upon you our desires that 
all Extraordinary and expensive Grants and Measures may, 



28 

upon Jill occasions as much as possible, 1)C avoided ; the 
public money of this country is the Toil and Labour of those 
who arc under many uncommon Difficulties and Distress at 
this time, so that all reasonable Frugality ouirht to l)e ob- 
served. And we would reconnnend particularly the strictest 
care and tirnniess to prevent all Unconstitutional Draughts 
on the l'ui)lic Treasury. And we cannot avoid saying that, 
if a particular encjuiry into the state of that Treasury should 
at the lirst opportunity be promoted, and an exact state of it 
put before the People, it would have a very good and useful 
tendency. ' All of which is respectfully submitted by the 
Conin)ittee of the town of Braintree, to draw instructions to 

their Representative. 

"SAMUEL NILES, 
JOHN ADAMS, 
NORTON QUIXCY, 
JAMES PEXXIMAX, 
JOHN IIAYWAllD, 

" Committee." 

As lawyer, orator, and leader, John Adams steps innnedi- 
ately to the front, successively becoming legislator, states- 
man, pl(Mii[)ot(Mitiary, ambassador, minister, vice-president, 
and second President of the United States, making a con- 
spicuous member of that remarkable group of American 
patriots, whose fame will survive while the English tongue is 
spoken. Justly upon the memorial tablet that stands al)ove 
the tomb where rests John Adams and his wife, it is said 
they participated in events 

" Whicli secured the Freedom of the Couutry, 
Improved the condition of the times, 
And brightened tlie prospects of Futurity 
To the race of men upon Eartli." 

In 1777 the town increased the pay of those in the field 
serving out of New England, and in September of the same 
year made up the (^uota demanded, agreeing to furnish sup- 
plies for the families of the enlisted, and offering premiums 
for reinforcements. 



29 

In 1778 Capt. Peniiimfin's company iu the Northern Army 
w;is voted '* back pay," and more suppUes were furnished to 
families. Inducements were held out to snbalterns, and time 
of pay carried back, to cover longer terms of engagement. 

Care was taken of those serving out of the State in 1776, 
and an equalization of payments made to men who had been 
two years in the service. 

In 1778-79-80, votes were passed from time to time 
raising money for war purposes and to aid the families of 
those who enlisted. 

In 1780 the families of six months' men are supplied with 
necessaries, and the thirty-six men called for under the 
resolve of June, 1780, were obtained. 

In July, 1780, a number of men agree on condition, to 
serve for three months, and the town again votes to supply 
the families of those in the "publick service" with money 
for support. 

In September, 1780, the first vote is cast for governor of 
jNIassachusetts, under the State Constitution, and John Han- 
cock, a son of Braintree, receives ninety-five of the one 
hundred and six votes thrown. 

In 1781 a difliculty arises with Boston on account of a 
soldier who has enlisted for three years from l)oth Boston and 
Braintree, " a veritable bounty jumper," but which shows 
that men were sent out of the town for that length of service. 

Four hundred pounds is assessed upon Braintree as her 
proportion, to invest in beef for the forces in action in 1781, 
and so far as the books give any items, this concludes the 
war record of this patriotic town. That, in that great and 
terril)le struggle, she did her whole duty, there can be no 
doubt. The armed citizen was a feature in her development. 
Military titles existed in the very infancy of Braintree. From 
the time when the major of the Sutiblk regiment was ordered 
to detail for the "Punkapoag Indians" twenty men from 
Dorchester, Milton, and Braintree, to preserve the "forte" 
and to "range y® woods," to the call in 1862 for "three hun- 
dred thousand more," Braintree has never fiiiled to answer 



so 

with her soldiers, " Present and aoconnted for." Slie niade a 
part of the three thousand men i'urnished l)y ]\Iassaehnsetts, 
who sei-\'c(l uudt'r Peppcrell, and they were at the surrender 
of Louisburg. Five of her mounted mcni and twelve on toot 
were in the "Great Swamp Fight" in Philip's war, and her 
sous were with Wolfe when he stormed and carried Quebec. 
The licvolution found Braintree awake and ready, with her 
militia, her minutc-mcn, and her recruits, lor long and 
short service. From the hour tlnit Concord rolled ])ack the 
British column to the moment of the disbandment of the 
forces in 1783, this heroic town poured out her money and 
her men, sparing neither blood nor treasure. Her men were 
with Washington at Dorchester Heights, Aviien the guns of 
the Provincials menaced the position of Gage, and compelled 
the last "redcoat" to leave Boston in haste. The stutf of 
which these men were made is shown in the reply of Joseph 
JNlaim, one of Capt. Penniman's men from Braintree, who 
was reported to the officers commanding the expedition, as 
hune and untit for duty. 

"How did you presume, thus disabled, to engage in the 
Continental service?" asked the officer. "What would you 
do in a retreat ? " 

"General," answered the soldier, ^' I came to Jig Jit, not to 
run awai/.^' 

Braintree men were with Washington in darker hours. 
They followed him in the disastrous retreat from New York,i 
and they, with other New England troops, remained with him 
and crossed the Delaware, that cold and l)leak December 
night, participating before morning in the engagement Avhieh 
led to the capture of Trenton, — a brilliant and dazzling 
success, that disi)elled the gloom and revived ihe almost 
broken courage of the disheartened American army. We 
know that Braintree men were with the Xorthern arni\' 
when Burgoyne was taken, and again with ^V^ashington when 
Yorktown fell, and Cornwallis, by capitulation, closed the con- 
test ; and we can say of the gallant town, as \Vel)ster said 
1 See Appendix D note 2. 



31 

of the galltint State, "The bones of her sous, fallen in the 
great struggle for independence, now lie mingled with the 
soil of every State, from New England to Georgia, and there 
they will lie forever." 

Little can we understand the extent and nature of the hard- 
ships and distress that followed the Revolutionary conflict. 
Complaints are heard to-day of great prostration in business 
aliairs, of severe burdens upon the community, of scarcity of 
employment, and instances of deprivation and want are cur- 
rent. Sad and unpleasant as these things are, they are but a 
suggestion, rather than a parallel to the experience of our 
predecessors. The woi'st hour we have known may be con- 
sidered as pregnant with blessings, compared with the be t 
moments of the terrible days between 1780 and 1790. 

The historian says, " That the times were gloomy no one 
can doubt. The life-blood of the nation had been poured 
out like water, and everywhere there were homes made deso- 
late, and dwellings, towns, and cities were falling rapidly into 
decay.'' ^ 

The population of Massachusetts was then less than that 
of Boston at present, and the State debt stood at live mill- 
ions, real money, as its part of the national contribution, 
besides four millions of its own liabilities. 

The speculative spirit had induced those who could obtain 
foreign goods, to over-importation, specie was drained from 
the country, public and private credit was im[)aired, if not 
destroyed, 2 and the overhanging, lowering clouds seemed 
black and heavy with impending calamity. The inspiration 
of Union, a word that was destined to disperse the impo- 
tence of Confederation, had not yet been pronounced ; the 
financial system, by which the genius of Hamilton was to 
quicken the giant energies of the Republic, had not yet been 
matured ; the matchless masonry of the Constitution had not 
been cut or chiselled into shape ; and those broad outlines of 
a nation, one and indestructible, had not yet been traced by 

1 Aiistin's History of Mass., p. 344. 

2 Austin's History of Mass., p. 364. 



32 

the Divine Artist on tiie broad canvas of hislory. Chaos 
ruled in coniniercc, paralysis pervaded administration, and 
doubt, mingled with despair, haunted the poi)ular mind. 

The actors of that dismal epoch are gone. No, not all ; 
here and there one lingers. In our own midst we have 
one,' a matron of a hundred years, whose cradle Avas rocked 
in the commotion of war, whose childhood was overcast 
with these scenes of gloom and darkness, and who has lived 
to see the clouds scatter, the seas of sorrow subside, until 
her own eyes, that have witnessed the changing events of a 
century, behold her country approaching a destiny beyond 
the wildest dreams of any i)oet, or the fairest promise of any 
prophet. ]May the remaining blessings of time, and all the 
unconceived blessings of eternity, come to the venerable 
woman Avhose presence we were in hopes might have hal- 
lowed this occasion ! 

That Braintree shared in this general discouragement and 
depression is evident, and from the close of the Revolution- 
ar3' war, to the close of the century, may well be termed the 
period of our municipal discipline and humiliation. The 
town had griefs of the spirit, as well as material ditfieulties. 
The records show that the General Court had given Braintree 
exceeding offence in an eflbrt to tinker the ortliodo.K Sabbath 
to suit the "demand of the times."'- Her indignation com- 
pels the people of the town, by vote, to "acknowledge it 
w^as surprising to them, the Honorable Court should at this 
day, when we are just emerging from the horrors of a most 
l)arbarous and unparalleled war, curtail a part of the Fourth 
Connnandment, by tolerating secular concerns and servile 
lal)or, to be carried on si.K hours of the same, to the great dis- 
turbance of ever}^ sober and conscientious person m the State." 
Other troubles follow. The town vaults were stuffed with 
certificates of indebtedness, of such dubious value that the 
selectmen were authorized to make for these securities the 

1 Mrs. Mary White, agod 101 years, still vigorous and in good health. 

2 This action refers to the statute iiassed hy tlio (reiieral Court regulating the 
Sabbath as it now exists, inaiving Sunday commence after midnight of Saturday, 
instead of six o'clock, as the Puritan Sunday did. 



33 

"best market" possible, find they are also to dispose of the 
Coutiiieutal money at "any hazard, for what it will fetch." 

The town found it necessary, in 1786, to " instruct its 
representative in his political conduct in the General Court." 
We have first, for this matter of instruction is rather a serious 
business, a vote "to raise a committee Avho are to serve 
without pay," that shall draw up the proper expression of 
dissatisfaction on the following basis, " which is declared to 
be the will of the town" : — 

First. To remove the Court from Boston. 

Second. To tax all public securities. 

Third. To tax money on hand and on interest. 

Fourtli. To lower the salaries of placemen. 

Fifth. To make land a tender for all debts, at the price 
it stood at when the debts were contracted. 

Sixth. To take some measures to prevent the grasping ot 
attorne3^s and barristers-at-law. 

The report of the committee carrying out these remark- 
able propositions is a marvel of turgid eloquence, if not 
elegance, and proceeds to inform the representative that, 
" Inasmuch as there are numerous Grievances or intolerable 
Burdens, by some means or other lying on the good subjects 
of this Republic, our eyes, under Heaven, are upon the Legis- 
lature of this Commonwealth, and their names will shine 
Brighter in American annals, by preserving the inalienable 
liberties of their own People, than if they were to carry the 
terror of their Arms as far as Gibraltar." 

The climax i of this burst of eloquence or rhetoric appears 
somewhat strained ; but there is no doubt whatever about the 
sincerity and earnestness of these terrific sentence -makers. 
They command the representative at the next session "to 
give his close attention to these matters." It is a mooted 
question whether he obeyed the clamor of the populace, as 
the following year there is an article in the warrant, " To see 
whether the Representative shall be dismissed, or instructed 

1 See Appendix D, 2d part. 



34 

still further." i The stifrircstion of rcmoviiiir the cnpitol awny 
from the temptations, blanclishmeiits, and inliuence of a great 
centre has, perhaps, a foundation of common-sense ; Init the 
movement to change the agreements of securities by taxation, 
to make a new legal tender, and scale debts by arbitrary 
methods, would l)etoken that the agrarian element had once 
found temporary lodgment in this conservative town. A\'c 
can l)ut smile at the primitive innocence, so often rep* ated, 
by Avhich over-contident people seem to turn their eyes, in 
any particular crisis, to the General Court. It is an ever- 
recurring transaction, yet there does not appear to l)e any 
corresi)onding action, on the part of that body, to justify this 
liberal outlay of popular glances, in that direction, in emer- 
gencies. And we are equally struck with the significance of 
another fact. In reading these instructions we find they 
insist on a course that shall crush, or at least i)ut proper 
check or restraint, on that order of gentlemen denominated 
lawyers, "the constitution,*' they say, " of whose modern 
conduct appears to us to tend rather to the destruction than 
the preservation of the Connnonwealth." We may conclude 
from this expression of opinion that in periods of disaster, 
the human mind has a tendency towards summoning a scape- 
goat, to receive the surplus spleen of the puljlic distemper. 
It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, however, that whenever 
the condition of allairs im})r()ve, the total dei)ravity of a 
special class seems to disappear. 

The sacrificial victim or "scapegoat" in 1786 was the 
lawyei- ; in IblG it seems to be the politician. I do not 
stand here to defend that class who make politics a trade, 
but to my mind it is contrary to the spirit of republican in- 
stitutions, that in free America any citizen cannot properly 
aspire to a high position Avithout the danger of loss of charac- 
ter and i)rivate rei)utati()n. 1 believe it to be one of the 
highest duties of an American citizen to know, and to mingle 

1 At tliis time quite :x rupture luust linve tnken place l>etAvccii the town and its 
representative, Gen. Thayer. He was elected l)y only twelve majority in 17H7, 
and an interliuc on the town books of that date exhibits some feeling in the 
matter. 



35 

ill politics. Our troulilc is, that thei-e are not more politicians 
in the true sense of that word ; that there are so few, and too 
few, is tlie fault of the intluential members of society, who 
stand aloof from the primaries, and then complain at what is 
done, chai'giug that things "are fixed." After all, govern- 
ment is but a machine, and when those individuals or 
classes who now do the growling, and charge all our evils 
to the caucus, will commence to handle the machinery them- 
selves, they can have matters their own way. Let our 
respectable people participate more freely in the details of 
political action, and there will be less corruption in high 
places, and a purer political atmosphere than now. Unless, 
and until they do this, they have no right to murmur or com- 
plain. It is familiar knowledge, that the term of our national 
life to which I have referred, was conspicuous "for general 
decay of trade, the rise of imported merchandise, the lall of 
produce, and an unconnnon decrease in the value of land."^ 
Much, therefore, must be pardoned to these stringent and 
barren years, that blasted the hopes, and palsied the reason 
of men. The heresies that lurk in those outbursts of indig- 
nation and suliering came from a community loaded down 
with unpaid obligations, exhausted with exertion, with no 
chosen industry to sustain it, no outlying farms or agricultu- 
ral regions seeking it for a market, no deep water or wharves, 
Avaiting for reviving navigation, . no local facilities as yet 
tempting capital to investment. Is it to be wondered that 
the good old town sought, as many have since, to discover 
some "short cut" to relief, some new way to pay del)ts, 
expecting to rectify existing wrongs, by shearing the stipend 
of placemen, snubbing attorneys, and suppressing barristers, 
and striving to balance the ledger, I)y " swapping farms and 
exchanging wood-lots " ? 

Among other misfortunes, Braintree develops in 171)1- a 
defaulter, or, as the examining committee rather tenderly 
express it, " a falling short of accounts," and her cup of mis- 

1 People's Hi.st. of America. 

2 Vinton's Memorial. 



36 

cry would seem to be wcllnl<rh full. This, unhappily, is by 
uo moans the limit of her trials, for in addition to the com- 
mon tril)ulation and loss from worthless paper promises of 
payment, and dcticits from unfaithful servants, she is about 
to be given over to the merciless process of legislative sur- 
oery. The time has come when the various centres make 
independent demands, and the extreme precincts aspire to 
become towns. These localities besiege the General Court 
for incorporation, and Braintree, through agent and repre- 
sentative, remonstrates and protests against the division of 
her territory, but in vain; the hour of partition has come, 
and fate demands the dislocation of the ancient township. In 
171)2 Quincy leaves her, and in 1793 Randolph follows, and 
the same year a separation from Sutlblk, leaves Braintree in 
Norfolk County. Though the town has previously urgently 
pressed for a new county, for some reason she is now dis- 
pleased with the arrangement, and petitions to be annexed 
once more to Suffolk. The petition is refused, and now the 
"iron has entered the soul" of Braintree, for she secedes 
from the halls of legislation and turns her back in sorrow, if 
not in anger, upon the unfriendly tribunal that has severed 
her in twain and torn her from the embrace of her time-hon- 
ored county relations. 

She declines in 1794 and 1795 to send any representative 
to the General Court, her vacant seat undoubtedly intended 
as a rebuke, to what she regards a cruel injustice, while she 
sits quietly at home, like Niobe weeping for her children. 
Though the inexorable tiat of change has stripped l^raintree 
of population and property, and forced from her more acres 
than she has now left to call her own, neither time nor change 
can deprive her of the honors and distinction that make her 
one of the oldest and most historical of the towns of Massa- 
chusetts. 

Jt will not be forgotten that the vast iron industry noAV in 
this country, annually computing its products by hundreds of 
millions of value, had its birth and infancy, in KUo, by the 

1 Appendix G, p. 4G3. Yiutou's Memorial. 



37 

waterfalls of the Monatiquot, it being the second ever fonnded 
in America. It will be remembered that her enterprise 
claims the first working of glass^ in America, while her crude 
method of transporting masses of stone by tramways ^ was 
the forerunner of that network of railways now nunil)ering 
seventy thousand miles in the States of the Union. Her list 
of eminent men contributed to fame during the one hundred 
and fifty years she was intact, is too long for repetition, but 
in it were persons distinguished in law, literature, science, 
and medicine, and from her ranks went many bankers, capi- 
talists, and " princely merchants " to add to the celebrity of 
the metropolis.^ 

It was from Braintree that Boston sought its mechanic to 
build the Old South Church'* in 1744, Avhile from her 
yards were launched ships of notable burden and commercial 
repute. It wou^ ' take hours to properly notice the promi- 
nent divines that m the three precincts adorned and dignified 
the Braintree pulpit. 

Rich, indeed, has this town been in clerical celebrities, 
from the pastorate of Mr. Fiske, whose somewhat extrava- 
gant eulogium upon his tombstone tells us in a rather sea- 
faring way that he, after possessing 

"Paul's patience, James's prudence, John's sweet love. 
Is landed, entered, cleared, and crowned above," 

to the noble Christian minister and masterly intellect of 
Richard Salter Storrs, who, in the sixty-fourth year of his 
pastoral service, in the ripeness of age, laid down his task 
amid the love and tears of the whole people, and of whom it 
was justly said, "Thrice blessed is the man who so spends a 
long life as to make his very name a religious doctrine.'' 
Yes, it is beyond dispute, that the Braintree sanctuaries have 

1 Life of Josiah Quincy, by Edmund Quincy, p. 7. 

2 Whitney, in a note to p. 49, nientious this road as built to carry stones for 
Bunker Hill Monument. 

3 See Appendix D note 3. 

■* Vinton's Memorial, in a note to p. 318, says Lieut. Robert Mead, carpenter 
of Braintree, erected the South Clmrcl^ at Boston. 
5 See Appendix D, note 4. 



38 

been siirnally honored with worth and ability. There arc en- 
]-olled the respected names of Thompson, the first minister of 
1G3<S, reputed "a learned, solid, sound divine," i and Briant, 
"a man of extraordinary poAvcrs," who assaulted the phari- 
seeism that went a])ou<^ exclaimiiii'', " The temple of the 
Lord,'- the temple of the Lord are wee," and aroused the 
bitterest theolog-ical controversy, since the days of Ilutehinson 
and AVheelwright ; and Ilui>h Adams, of "eccentric"^ cast, 
who seemed forever in hot water about his salary ; and Parson 
Xiles, a man of decided parts, who settled by treatise the 
whole docti-ine of "Original Sin," and illustrated his views 
by buttonholing the General Court imtil he had the town 
lines so run around his farm as to l)e against all rules of con- 
sistency and symmetry ; '' and Weld, "a faithful and useful 
minister," under whom the flag of the "Half Way Cove- 
nant," 5 a device filling up the church with hypocrites and 
the world Avith infidels, was hauled down ; and Park, still 
living as the head of an influential seat of religious learning, 
and wlio, uniting in his intellectual accomplishments the en- 
dowments of Hooker, and the logic of Edwards, is without a 
peer in the profession he adorns. Such are some of the lights 
of the ministry that have shed their beams from our sacred 
desks. But what words shall express or reflect the efl'ulgeuce 
of those other stars, that shine in the American firmament, 
undimmed and unchangeable? AYho shall attempt to paint 
the ])rightness of those immortal chieftains, without which 
America would not have had her history, or Freedom have 
won her victories? 

When the fifth Henry M'as picturing the results of the 
campaign that gave Agincourt to martial prowess, he thrilled 
his compatriots by prophesying "the eftcet of French defeats 
on English hearts." Then, said he, shall (nir names, " familiar 
in the mouths " as household words, — 

1 Liint's Sermon, p. 88. 

2 Aiipt'iidix, Luiit's Sermon, p. 135. 

8 ramphlet, Manual and History of First Cong. Clmrch, Braintree, note to 
p. 4. 

* r;ul;'s Address at 50th Anniversary of Dr. Storrs's pastorate. 

6 raiiiphlet, Manual and Historical Fii-st Cong. Church, Braintree, p. 13. 



3l> 

" Harry the King, 
Bedford and Exeter, 
Warwick and Talbot, 
Salisbury and Gloster, 
Be in this flowing cup freshly remembered." 

And wherever, in all this broad domain, the old and lumi- 
nous story of the Eevohition is told to-day, wherever an 
American heart throbs on this memoral^le morning to the 
recital of patriotic incident, wherever the pledge of remem- 
brance is given to those who made this the nation's jubilee, 
the names of Adams and Hancock and Quincy will be insep- 
arable from sentiment and recollection. From our midst may 
not have gone forth those who became renowned in field, or on 
battle-deck, but we sent out the Thor, who forged the thun- 
derbolt, that rifted the Republic from the grasp of monarchy. 
Most fitting was it that tlie soil which held the dust of the 
regicide Revel, should have been the origin of the two men 
exempted in the hour of travail from kingly recognition and 
clemency.^ It was our town that gave the first chief magis- 
trate to the Commonwealth, the second and sixth President 
to the United States, the latter of whom, to show his attach- 
ment and love for it, in an address delivered in Braintrce in 
l^)39, said, "I 7ir(S, or rather, I am, one of yourselves. I 
was born in Braintree, and in the revolution of time I am one 
of the oldest inhabitants of that town. In Braintrce I first 
beheld the light of heaven, first breathed the atmosphere of 
your granite rocks, first sucked with my mothers milk the 
love of liljcrty, and I was always grateful to heaven for having 
made me a Braintree boy." 

It was a son of Braintree that with Otis and Warren made 
the grand triumvirate, that inaugurated the crusade for inde- 
pendence ; it was her citizen that defiantly asserted " that the 
people, the populace as they are contemptuously called, have 
rights antecedent to all earthly government ; rights that 
cannot be repealed or restrained l)y hiiman laws ; rights 
derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe "' ;- it was 

1 Bancroft's His., Cen. Edition. 

2 His. of American Revolution. 



40 

her (losccndant tluit, hearing the crack of the musketry on the 
19th of April, broke out with the exultation, " \\ hat a glori- 
ous morning is this ! " i it was her son that first wrote the bold 
signature to the Declaration, ''to be seen across the ocean," 
which imperishable document has this day been read to an 
audience of more than forty millions of grateful people; and 
in a later day, when lil)erty was again in peril, and when law 
was defied in her very citadels, it was the most distinguished 
of all her children that became the champion of imperilled 
rights and solved the perplexity produced by anarchy l)y an- 
nouncing, "I will put the question myself.""^ 

Though other tciwns now flourish on her parted domain, 
and the population living within its former l)oundaries now 
numl)crs twenty thousand souls, 3 while the valuation included 
in her ancient limits has swelled to twelve • millions ot 
money,'' yet these glorious names are her everlasting patri- 
mony, and these illustrious deeds are the deathless inherit- 
ance of Braintree, and of Braintree alone. With New Brain- 
tree in Massachusetts, and Braintree in Vermont, as credita- 
ble colonies, with Quincy, Kandolph, and Holbrook, pros- 
perous offspring, setting up for themselves on their part ot 
the old estate, with her sons and daughters, since pioneers 
on the reserves and plains of the great AVest, on Southern 
savannas, and on the far-off vineyards of the Pacific, bearing 
wherever they are planted the virtues and principles taught 
by her hearthstones, Brainti'ce, in 1794, became within her 
present boundaries a town of the Commonwealth, and so in- 
tact she has remained for eighty years, except that by Act of 
the Legislature a small strip of her territory, known as the 
"Keck," was annexed to Quincy in 1855. 

AVe have seen how Braintree closed the seventeenth cen- 
tury. She ended the eighteenth, as the old records show, by 
miiuitely detailing the duties of the sexton of the church, who 

1 Austin's His. of Mass. 

2 This incifleiit of John Quinc\- Adams is dosciihed in llev. "Wni. P. Lutt's 
sorinoii. 

8 See Appendix A, note 2. 
* See Appendix A, note 2. 



41 

was required "to ring tlie bell, sweep the house, remove the 
snow from the horse block, carry the burying cloth, and per- 
form divers other prescribed responsibilities"; and then the 
position was knocked olF to the lowest bidder, at ten dollars, 
just as the sands of 1799 were running out ;^ and year after 
year, without violent change or abrupt innovation, the town 
pursued its slow and steady ways, while the sexton rang the 
bell to the church, to bridal ceremonies, to tire alarms, tolling 
with it the funeral dirge, forthose who passed on to the grave ; 
and without doubt it rang lustily on that memorable Sunday 
morning, during the AVar of 1812, when Col. Clark inter- 
rupted the first service by rushing into the house, announcing 
the news of British invasion, and Capt. Ralph Arnold^ rallied 
his company, and, with a week's rations, started in search of the 
enemy, repulsing the tollman at the North Ferry Bridge, wlio 
interfered with the progress of the t)old warriors, by shouting 
" Halt ! " causing that indiscreet official to beat a hasty retreat, 
the gate being carried by stoi'm. This tradition, showing a 
readiness to resist the foe, together with the records of the 
town concerning enlistments for the War of 1812, is i)r()of 
that Brainti-ee was true to the country, as had ever been her 
wont. That the growth and habits of the town for the first 
quarter of the present century were sluggish, and its condi- 
tion stationary and far from flattering, may be inferred from 
a portraiture by Rev. Dr. Storrs in his fiftieth anniversary 
sermon, calling attention to the fact " that fifty years ago, and 
for many after years, no post-office blessed the town, nor 
public conveyance for letters, papers, or persons was to be 
had, even semi-weekly, except through vihages two miles 
distant ; that but for an occassional rumbling of a butclier's 
cart, or a tradesman's wagon, the fall of the hammer on the 
lapstone, or the call of the ploughman to his refractory team, 
our streets had wellnigh rivalled the graveyard in silence, it 
can scarcely surprise one that our knowledge of the outer 

1 See Appendix D, note 4. 
* See Appendix D, note 5. 



42 

world was imperfect, nor that general intelligence and enter- 
prise were held at a discount." i 

It is easy to see that what the good doctor says of himself 
is true of the town, — that preliminary years of experience "are 
rather ])rei)arative to life, than intelligent life itself." 2 In 
1800 the population of Braintree was 1,280, and its valua- 
tion was not over $250,000.3 In 1812, the year which Dr. 
Storrs has jDresented to our view, with its Arcadian simplicity 
and quiet, if not with Arcadian fascination and felicity, the 
town riches, all told, amounted to $305,000, the nabob of 
Braintree, a l)utcher, l)oasting the fabulous wealth of $30,000.'* 
But Braintree was to "see another sight," and this stagnation 
was to give way to a different era. The original meaning of 
Braintree, "a town near a river," ^ was to fulfil its derivation, 
and along the Monatiquot the true destiny of the place was to 
be achieved. Capital at last sought the secrets of growth 
and increase. The tide mills, now the site of the grain 
and grist mill of Hobart, were utilized in" furnishing most 
excellent flour. The head of water above " cart In'idge " was 
put to use in making the best of chocolate, being afterwards 
converted into a grist mill, Avhich was destroyed by fire a few 
years since. The "trip hammer falls," once used for the 
smelting of copper, were made to serve the Boston Flax 
Company, consuming nearly two thousand tons of coal annu- 
ally, and at times employing four hundred persons in pre[)a- 
ratlon of its fabrics. Higher up the active stream, now the 
location of the yarn mills of B. L. Morrison, was the site ot 
the grist mills of Hon. Bcnj. V. French, a name we cannot 
pass without special mention. *" Mr. French was, in his day, 

1 Anniversary Sermon of Rev. Dr. Storrs, p. 32. 

2 Anniversary Discourse of Dr. Storrs, p. 14. 
8 See Appendix A, note 4. 

*A coinnuuiication entitled "Sixty Years Ago," written for tlie -Kr'//»f/'ee 
Breeze, in 1872, has this incident: "The two rich men of the town were Peter 
Dyer, a hirge land-owner, wlio lived on Washington Street, in the house now 
occupied hy the widow of the late Ezra Dyer, and IJryant Newcomb who lived at 
the Xeck, now a part of Quincy. These men, one a butcher, the other a farmer 
and trader, were su]ii)osed to be worth from ■§20,000 to ??30,000 each." 

6 See Adams's Town Hall Oration, note 10, p. 2G. 

6 See Appendix D, not^e 6. 



43 

one of our most public-spirited citizens, who in early life 
removed from Boston to this town, possessed of an ample 
fortune, and Braintree as well as the State is largely indebted 
to him for the development of its agricultural resources. He 
caused husbandry to become a tine art, and horticulture a 
passion. He is entitled also to grateful remembrance for his 
successful efforts in the establishment of Mount Auburn, tlins 
inaugurating the present system of burial in rural and culti- 
vated grounds, making the home of the dead a pleasant and 
attractive spot. Near by were the yarn and woollen mills of 
A. Moirison & Sons, and following on, the site of the shovel 
works of the Ames, and latterly the tack and nail factory of 
Stevens & AVillis, the extensive paper mills of Hollingsworth, 
where in former years the Revere Copper Works were 
located, and still higher up, the planing and saw mill of White, 
not to mention other enterprises not now in active operation. 
Another industry to which Massachusetts owes much of her 
success, as there were engaged in it, in 1874, 2,392 firms, 
and employed 35,831 hands, with an invested capital of 
$2'), 000,000, and an annual pay roll of $28,000,000, produ- 
cing in sales $88,394,000, the cost of which was $51 ,304.000, 
was the vast boot, shoe, and leather business, which had a 
thrifty and prominent activity in Braintree. The town soon 
began to thrive under these stimulants to skilled labor, and 
after the establishment of a trunk line of railway, a road most 
wisely and generously managed, affording communication 
to all parts of the country for transportation of connnodities 
and persons, the change in our population, values, and con- 
cerns Avas so remarkable that the son of the venerable pastor, 
coming home to share the honors and festivities that siirnal- 
ized his fiither's half-century of Christian service, forciljly 
stated " that the sequestei'cd hamlet is now the suburb of the 
city, and the tumult of the world's enterprise rushes through 
it day and night." ^ Through the courtesy of Col. Wright, 
under whose supervision the last census of the State was 

iDr. R. S. Storrs, Jr., at anniversary ceremonies of his fatlier, p. 41. 
2 See Appendix A, note 5. 



44 

taken, I have been furnished with information, prior to its 
general publication, fi'om which it is ascertained that Brain- 
tree in 187o had forty-three manufacturing establishments in 
operation, the value of the goods made that year being 
$1,724,300, the cost of stock used was $1,104,215, the capital 
invested S648,883, and giving employment to 931) hands. 
The agricultural products of the town amounted to $101,222. 

From these interesting figures, we find that Braintree has 
more than held her own in the race of prosperity. Her me- 
chanical products sold above their cost $620,(^91, and her 
agriculture yielded $101,222, a total of $721,313, or nearly 
three times her entire valuation at the opening of the cen- 
tury. The town had within one hundred and fifty as man}' 
persons engaged in mill work alone, as she had po})ulation in 
1800. With less than half the population of her daughter, 
Quincy, she gets from her soil $101,000, to $128,000 from the 
latter place. Her farming turned out $40,000 better than 
Randolph and Holbrook combined, with a population of 
1,600 more than Braintree, and her entire balance sheet 
comj^ares creditably with any town in the State. 

The population of Braintree is uoav 4,156; valuation, 
$2,769,500. She has five religious societies, w^ith houses, 
nine buildings erected at a cost of $50,000, afibrding accom- 
modations for sixteen schools, a town-house, ample and 
conmiodious, costing $25,000 ; and her highways, w^ell kept 
and extending to all points, number forty-eight miles ; an 
eflicient and well-equipped fire department, established in 
1874 ; and a capacious fire-proof building, erected for the pur- 
poses of a pu])lic library at a cost of about $35,000, with a 
permanent fund of $10,000 to support it ; while of the charac- 
ter and accomplishments of the people the same authority, so 
often referred to, asserts in 1871, as compared with former 
years, "There is more kindliness and good-will among neigh- 
bors, more general intelligence prevailing, and more is ex- 
pended on youthful education without grudging, the advan- 
tages of social order and the beauty of manliness are better 
appreciated, and the moral courage th;it braves contumely and 



45 

violence, for the maintenance of the right, has steadily in- 
creased." ^ 

It is often an inconsistent mental trait to exalt the past at 
the expense of the present, and heap unstinted praise upon 
the fathers, to the disparagement of the sons ; but who of us 
this day would dismantle the various seats of enterprise that 
now crown the banks of the Manatiquot, and go back to the 
mill of 1(340, that answered the needs of a hundred settlers? 
Who would return to their native wilds the one hundred and 
sixty miles of perfectly equipped road,^ now within the three 
original precincts, to travel again the footway of Goodman 
Penniman, or seek a journey to Bridgewater by the old "cart 
patli"? Who would demolish the nineteen well-adapted 
church editices 3 and pass weary Sal)baths in the ungainly 
barracoons that in the old days went nnder the title of meet- 
ing-houses? Who would exchange the tasteful, painted 
dwelling, with its modern conveniences, its ornamented 
grounds, its library book, its daily paper, for the awkward, 
bleak, and incommodious cabin and hal)ilation of our ances- 
tors? Who, instead of the modern conveniences of travel- 
ling, would go back to the tedious and uncomfortable stage- 
coach? Who would banish the convenience, comfort, and 
advantages of the sixty-nine schools of 13raintree,'* Quincy, 
Randolph, and Holbrook, and revive the educational strug- 
gles when each boy was required to cut and bring one load 
of wood, as his quota of fuel, each winter? In these days 
of comparative Christianity, when it is both the policy of the 
State and the disposition of the inhabitant to welcome the 
Celt and Saxon, the Lapp and Finn and Ethiopian, and even 
the " heathen Chinee," to try the chances of life with us, 
who would " turn back the dial" and recall the custom which 

1 Dr. Storrs's Anniversary Sermon, p. 34. 

2 Quincy, (50 miles; Holbrook, 18; Randolph, 30; Braintree, 48. 

3 Quincy, 9; Braintree, 5; Kandolph, 3; Holbrook, 2. 

* Braintree : number of school buildings, y ; value, $45,000 ; number of 
schools, 16. Quincy: number of school buildings, 10; valuation, $7!), 500; number 
of schools, 29. Randolph: number of school buildings, 7; valuation, :fii32,'J50; 
uiiniber of schools, 10. Holbrook: number of school buildings, 5; valuation, 
^12,550; number of schools, 8. 



46 

once provniled in this and other towns, of wnnnng 1)y legally 
served notice "widows, families with children, hiborers, and 
transient persons " to depart the limits of the town within 
iiftcen days " ? 1 Aye, who can to-day contemplate such 
heartless public action without shuddering at its utter disre- 
gard of what we now know of expediency or charity? It 
would be impossible to illustrate in a more convincing man- 
ner the contrast of these with the times that have gone before, 
than by referring to the dillerent methods of dealing Mith the 
participants of the Avar of the Ri-volution and the late war 
of the Hebellion. To find those of Braintree who served in 
the first grand struggle f(jr independence, it is necessary to 
listen to fleeting and varying fireside tradition, to study the 
defaced letters of crumbling tombstones, to hunt the uncer- 
tain records of the Pension Office, or by accident obtain a 
hint from some stray memoi'ial or occasional biography. 

Every dollar of the fifty thousand that Braintree ex- 
pended for her soldiers of the war for nationality, in excess 
of the ordinary expense, can be traced to the last farthing. 
Every one of the five hundred and thirty-one privates, and 
eighteen officers, that went out of this town, at the call of the 
Republic, a number in excess of all demands made upon her, 
each can l)e found upon the muster in the State and national 
capital, in an elaborate public roster, issued by private sub- 
scription, as well as by diplomas and medals, awarded by an 
appreciating Connnonwealth and country ; while those Brain- 
tree heroes who, in hospital, in camp, or in action, fell on the 
altar of sacrifice, or who among that sacred band embraced 
in the mysterious catalogue of " missing " went up by un- 
known paths to the God of battles, have all been carved in 
solid stone on an enduring monument placed on the most 
conspicuous spot on our soil, that these patriotic and chival- 
rous men, who died to uphold the connnon fiag, might have 
their names perpetuated in honor while that flag, in its purity, 
beauty, and power, waves above their priceless dust, 

Jn the presence of those attainments of the living, and this 
1 See Appendix D, uote 7. 



47 

appreciation of the dead, let the faUe adulation of that which 
has fled, be silenced, and with due thanksgiving for the bene- 
factions of the present, let us, the heirs of all that has come 
to us, press forward with undiminished courage and expecta- 
tion to the boundless possibilities of the ever-waiting future. 

In compliance with the invitation of the committee of the 
towu, and to serve the purpose expressed by the President of 
the United States, in a late proclamation, that these centennial 
efforts should convey some knowledge of the people and the 
localities in which they are delivered, it has been the object 
of this endeavor, so far as practicable within the limits of an 
address of this nature, to tell, without undue elal)oration or 
attempt at ornament, the story of Braintree as a town of the 
province, as a town of the Revolution, and a town of the 
liepublic. 

Our lot has been cast in pleasant places, and the scenery of 
this region has been from earliest moments the theme of admi- 
ration. Morton, whatever may have been his faults, certainly 
api)reciated the good points in landscape, for he wrote in his 
"New Canaan" of the line, round hillocks, the delicate "faire 
plains," the sweet, crystal fountains, and the millions of turtle- 
doves on green boughs, pecking at the full, ripe, pleasant 
grapes,^ v,'hich had met his eye. We are familiar with this 
glowing description, with, perhaps, the exception of the 
"millions of turtle-doves," which, unless circumstances have 
changed, were birds of imagination, seen l)y the wayward 
barrister while exchanging " flre-water " with the too easily 
persuaded sagamores, who visited "mine hoste " of Merry 
Mount. Others have said, in speaking of the delightful 
scener}^ of this section, that it presented lights and shadows, 
making a picture worthy of the pencil of Kembrandt and of 
Claude. Grander scenes, more impressive and sublimer 
heights, may be visited, fairer views may be unrolled ; yet, 
standing on the summit of Bhie Hill, once the boundary of the 
town, with a cloudless blue sky above, and below the blue 
ocean, stretching away to the far horizon, peaceful bays and 

1 Morton's "New Canaan." 



48 

plnc'ul ponds at our feet, the surf l)eiitin2: against the crags 
of Nahant, in siglit, hcwitching intervale and meadow, and 
glimpses of the winding river, charming the beholder, the bil- 
lowing undulations of the soil, rolling towards the west,AVachu- 
sett seen as a near neighljor, and the hazy Monadnock standing 
sentinel at the nortliern outpost, the serene Punkapoag, sur- 
rounded with forests apparently as uul)roken as the day when 
the sachem Chickatabot hunted through them, lying at the 
south, a population of half a million within the range of vision, 
the busy procession of sail and steamer plyiug the harl)or, 
the close line of masts at the wharves, a hundred spires i)oint- 
ing upwards, the hills and plains of three cities crowded with 
dwellings, churches, and domes, to tinish the scene, and it 
may well be doubted whether any pilgrim can see such 
another blended loveliness of headland and height, shore and 
sunnnit, ocean and land, sky and earth, nature and art, com- 
bined in one commingled prospect, nntil his foot presses the 
land of Beulah, and his eye fastens npon the turrets and pin- 
nacles of the City Beautiful. 

It is now my pleasing duty, l)efore concluding my task, to 
make mention of those benefactors of Braiutree, who, by tes- 
tamentary act, have made it the object of l)equest and remem- 
brance. Two of these donors bear the familiar and honorable 
n ime of Thayer, a name so interwoven with our history as to 
give force to the remark that at one time the town was "all 
Thayers."' One out of every seven of the names upon the 
soldiers' tablet arc Thayers, — an incident that stands isolated 
in the story of war. 

The wilf of Xathaniel Thayer, in I.S29, left his estate to the 
town in trust, "providing that the income shall be for- 
ever appropriated for the support of the public schools 
thereof, and for the promotion of learning in them." This is 
the Lieut. Nathaniel Thayer whose name occurs in the town 
Ijooks frequently as a minority candidate to the Legislature. 
lie was known by the abl)reviation of "Left. Nat," and was 
the standing nominee of the anti-Federalist side, who, in this 

' Dr. Alden's address, p. 72, Fifteenth Auuiversary Discourse of Dr. Storrs. 



49 

town, "were few and fiir between." Luther Hayden, one of 
his ardent supporters, and one who would have been a most 
l)rilliant subject for the reform movement, went to the polls 
at a certain election, intending to vote for his man. Whether 
he strayed into the Thinner mansion, where the " latch-string" 
was always out on Election day, and became alHicted with 
Avhat would now pass for "mental aberration" or not, cannot 
now be ascertained, but somehow he voted for Gen. 
Thayer on the Federal ticket, and Thayer was chosen by one 
majority. Hayden was rallied and badgered for this episode, 
and broke out into rhyme, and he will have to pass for one of 
our early Braintree poets, we having no record of any other 
'' mute " inglorious Milton to compete with him. Hayden's 
stanza, somewhat familiar to many of our elderly people, ran 
thus : — 

" Towu-mcetiuy Avas appointed, the people did appear, 
Down to Dr. Storrs' meetiug-house all did steer ; 
Some went for ruin and bacon and others went for sport, 
And chose a Federal representative to the General Court, 
And I was much mistaken, as though I lost my hat, 
But if I go again next year I will vote for Left. Nat." 

In 1851 Josiah French devised to the town "five acres of 
land" as a common field for companies for a play-ground, 
and buildings for "town or public purposes," and upon this 
tract the Town Hall, and on land connected therewith the 
Public Library, are now located ; and near l)y it is now in 
process of erection an elegant structure for an advanced 
school, commensurate with the needs of the town, and the 
noble generosity of its public-spirited benefactor. "Desirous 
of promoting the cause of education in this Commonwealth 
according to his abilit\% and of benefiting the town of Brain - 
tree," Gen. Sylvanus Thayer in 1871, by will, left an exceed- 
ingly valuable property to us on prescribed conditions, but 
the transaction is too recent and too familiar to need com- 
ment. The imposing fortification standing at the entrance to 
Boston Harbor, known as Fort Warren, is a nununnent to 
the engineering and professional skill of Gen. Thayer ; but 
i 



50 

the commodious Puldic Lihniiy, and the cstablislimcnt of 
this school, Avith a fund ample for its maintenance forever, to 
be a peri)c'tual blessing to coming generations, are noble 
monuments to the foresight and affection of one of the most 
distiiiiiuished of our departed citizens. And now remember- 
ing that the mission of this town is but incomplete, and its 
final consununations not yet conjectured, let us for a moment, 
from this vantage of a century, look on and beyond, to the 
grander promise before us as a town of the future. Samuel 
Adams, a descendant of Braintree, ardently desired that 
'' Boston of the Revolution " miii'ht become a " Christian 
Sparta.*' ^ The Spartan feature of civilization was the ''disci- 
pline and education of the citizen." And the Hem. Charles 
Francis Adams, also a descendant of old Braintree, in his 
thorough and eloquent oration, at the dedication of this Town 
Hall in 1858, declared it as his profound conviction that the 
"mission of freedom to mankind," even now, rests mainly 
"with the children of the Puritans."- 

That the freedom of mankind, the progress of this nation, 
the whole vast, complicated question of universal suffrage, 
rests on the Puritan idea, is a fact apparent to most reflecting 
minds. Education, in the threefold relation to God, to the 
conunuuity, and to ourselves, is the sole condition of Ameri- 
can peipetuity and advancement. 

Studying the climate, the capacity, and the configuration of 
this continent, if it only achieves the proportional population 
of Europe, in the year 1970, it will numl)ermore than 1,000,- 
000,000 of people.^ AVith the correctness of such tables 
and possil)ilities, we have little to do on this occasion ; but it 
is our privilege to know that between the foundation of the 
first Puritan town, l)ased on religious needs and personal edu-, 
cation, and the order of society, to that culminating point 
that shall sec the fullest energies and t-apabilities of the con- 

iParton's History of American IkCvolution, p. 21, note. 

2 Adams's Town Hall Oration, p. 4!). 

8 "We liave fifteen millions square miles, and Europe three. Look forward 
then to a po|iulation in America, equal to that of the average of that of EuroiJC 
that is, twelve hundred millions." — Jicv. Jos. Cook. 



51 

tineiit realized, the church, the school, and the town-hall will 
still be the centre of civilization and the secret of success ; 
for the sanctuary, science, and statesmanship have at last 
but one meaning, teaching us the highest in ourselves by the 
knowledge of our duties and responsibilities towards our fel- 
lows, and towards the great Lawgiver. 

At the suggestion of a descendant of Braintree, and by 
direction of the selectmen, two young royal oaks ^ have been 
planted on the town grounds in front of this house. We can 
infer from the lessons of analogy, that, in after years, these 
centennial oaks will become sturdy and umbrageous giants, 
their beauty giving delight to the observer, and their rich and 
clustering foliage yielding refreshing shade to the wayfarer. 
By an instinct born of the ennobling faith that has been the 
melody of psalm, and the message of prophecy for thirty 
centuries, we know that the Braintree of posterity will differ 
as much,from the town of to-day, as this dilFers from the rude 
hamlet of 1629, as much as the massive, monster oak of a 
hundred years differs from the slender shoot now taking root 
in our soil. 

The problem of the universe is the culture, the condition, 
the character of human beings, and the towns of America are 
the arena on which the mighty solution is to be worked out 
for human interests. It is not the American city, with its 
millionnaires at one end of the social enigma, and dei>:raded 
masses at the other, not the crowded centres of population, 
with many devoted exclusively to traffic, and many abandoned 
wholly to temptation, that the nation is to rely for its moral 
strength, or humanity look for its ripened harvests, but to 
these congregations of neighborhoods, where neither passions 
nor ambitions are too intense, but where the standard of 
excellence and possession is within the common reach, and 
where the law of distribution and ratio of development 
flourish together. 

^ Dr. David Thayer, of Boston, presented to me, from his farm in Braintree, 
two young oaks, which have this day been jjlanted on the Common, near the Town 
House. 



52 

It mere mechanical ol)eclieiicc to the commands once 
placed on "tlic tables of stone" is all of human life, then 
Judica was the culminating point of human history, and the 
Hebrew is the model for general imitation. If the percep- 
tion of grace, of classic refinement, and such nice understand- 
ing of proportion in everything, that the chief error was 
thought to be vulgarity and want of harmony, if that worship 
and study of the beautiful was the chief ol)ject of creation, 
then the hour of Pericles was the hour of triumph, and 
Greece ended the dream of the world. If the manifestation 
of force was the reason of the world's existence, then Rome 
has fulfilled the purpose of its ■Maker ; and if reli<rious devo- 
tion, enthusinsm, and sentiment is the desire of the Lord of 
Hosts, then the revival of the crusades should be both the 
delight and the duty of the true believer : but if to lessen 
want, misery, and wretchedness, so that peace and content- 
ment can be the unquestioned and universal lot of man, be 
the design of the good Author of life, then civilization Avith 
the stamp of Deity upon it has not yet altogether appeared. 

The republic of Plato was an attempt to found institu- 
tions after methods existing in the eternal thought. There 
is in the Divine mind the pattern and ideal of that town 
formation which shall absolutely realize that " pursuit of 
happiness " for which this historic day and this people are 
the memorial and pledge of fruition. The orator who one 
hundred years hence shall take this place, connmming Avith 
other generations, sweeping backward to this point, to note a 
progress of which we have neither conception nor comprehen- 
sion, may not tell of valor at arms for territorial conquest, or 
territorial preservation, or of any warlike prowess, unless 
that awful war of faiths, contending with all the terrcn- of 
religious energy, and the present science of destruction, which 
now threatens the peat-e of Europe, shall also desolate this 
hmd ; but that orator will tell of such eonquests over selfish- 
ness as shall prove vital conquests over sin, and shall one day 
make citizenship synonymous with brotherhood, causing the 
town to become everywhere a greater and happier famil}' ; 



53 

and could we, on this centennial Fourth, with finer sensations 
than we possess, turning our ears to the skies, catch the 
strains of that immortal choral now ringino; through the 
arches of heaven, we should hearken to the fflad tidings 
chanted nineteen hundred years ago around the manger at 
Bethlehem, then heralding the promise of the world's com- 
plete redemption, and this day telling us, — 

"Lo, the days are hastening on, 

By prophet bards foretokl, 
When with ever-circling years 

Comes round tlie Age of Gold, 
When Peace shall over all the earth 

Her final splendors fling. 
And the whole world send back the song 

Which now the angels sing."' 

1 See Appendix A, note 1. 



POEM. 

By ASA T. PRATT, Esq. 



As guiding Pharos glads the wave-tossed mariner's sight, 

As niglit's lone traveller welcomes the cheering light, 

Thus from the soul in blissful rapture springs 

The grateful tribute, for the joys remembrance brings 

Of days of sapient worth; whose dawn with clouds o'erspread,- 

The gloom dispelled, — as lustrous rays beneficently shed 

The genial warmth that falls from liberty's flame; 

Circling with hallowed ties, it guides to future fame; 

Twining round hearts dismayed hope's lovely, cheering bands. 

Till dawning day of gloom in radiance bright expands. 

Thus dawns this honored day. A century since has flown, 
When flag of liberty unfurled, first to the breeze was thrown; 
As trusty watch-tower stands, to mark where dangers lay, 
As guardian of libeity, we hail this honored day. 
Let gratitude and love just homage pay to worth. 
To memories of sacrifice that gave our country birth. 

Serenely fair, the blissful rays of peace illume our way. 

While cheering hope bids faltering feiir resign its sway. 

To spread the gloom of sad desponding care. 

To dim the lustre of our land, now shining fair 

By valor's deeds; in virtue's worth enkindled bright, 

Gave to the world the guiding rays of freedom's light; 

Luring from distant lands, to sever home's fond ties. 

And gather with admiring hearts where flag of freedom flies. 

Though passing clouds appear, and dimly glimmering low, 
The halo light of country's fame may flickering glow, 
While the dread demon Discord, wielding vandal hand, 
To wrest the well-earned laurel from our land, 
' To vilely tarnish deeds of noblest sheen. 
And from the chaos made to foully glean 



5() 

The sad'ning harvest of a country lorn and riven: 
Yet never, while 't is to memory fondly sjiven 
To lii^ht devotion's altar with admirinij Ldow, 
For patriot nol)le deeds, one lauKhvd years nijo. — 
Nevci' shall mad contention, led by foulest strife, 
Destro}' the sacred gift, our country's precious life. 

The glorious boon, inspired by heaven-horn thought. 

In trust bestowed, to succor wlien with danger fraught. 

And o'er its virtues constant ward to hold; 

That coming time and future age its glorious Avorth unfold; 

Cheered be our hopes, confiding trust abound. 

To guard the sacred legac}^ Avhen dangers dire surround; 

Devotion's spirit nurtured, a century's vigil keejjs, 

Still lives in hearts devoted, — thus yonder statue speaks; 

The notes of jrlowing eloquence, inspiring, oft has flown, 

Can ne'er so firmly bind our faith as the memorial stone. 

A century has flown since first convened that l)and, 

"Who scorned to wear oppression's chain or bend at base command: 

The clouds of ill impending, to darken freedom's rays, 

Are scattered by the oritiamb heroic acts upraise. 

Up roused the clans, as fiery cross sped fast o'er Scotia's hills; 

Thus freedom's hallowed light appeared, and heart of patriot thrills 

From these our hills, the tocsin sound of freedom sprung. 

Till o'er the land, in startling tones, returning echoes rung; 

When Adams' firm, ecstatic words, approaching ills defy, — 

'' Sink or swim, survive oi- perish, live or die." 

'T is thus for country loved we freely tender all. 

And by the hazard stand, to rise or honored fall. 

The plains of Concord and of Lexington for vengeance cried, — 

The sods of Bunker's Hill with patriot blood were dyed, — 

The Im-id light of Charlestown's wasting fires 

Kindled devotion's flame in heart of patriot sires, 

AVhere long the slumbering embers, dormant lain, 

Were roused to life as clanked oppression's chain. 

Over all the land a sombrous pall there hung. 

" To arms ! to arms ! " in startling tones then rung 

The voice of freedom's earnest wakened braves. 

To live for liberty or sleep in honored graves. 

Too long had meek submission held ifs reign, 
And peaceful hopes too long allured in vain. 



57 



Till social ties wrought foully fettering bonds, 

And manliood wanes, as drooping virtue sad desponds. 

Tlie fell, destroying power of stern despotic sway, 

Its glaring evils marked each footstep of its waj-, 

Pointing the derisive finger of malignant scorn 

At purest innocence that virtue's whys adorn. 

Invading peaceful households' blest domain, 

And gathering there pollution's vilest stain, 

Till sorrow bowed the loving parent's head 

For some loved one by base surroundings led, — 

Some mother's heart in bitter anguish pained. 

As hideous vice o'er nobler virtue reigned. 

In peril stood that faith that heaven adores. 

By Pilgrims brought to these then dreary shores. 

Religion's seeds they planted midst their cares. 

And ever strove protect from all destroying tares ; 

With hopes and purposes high, guided by sacred aid, 

"With faith in God, their future welfare laid. 

Crushed were these hopes, and souls with sadness fill, 

When baneful, hireling minions of tyrannic will. 

With braggart power, the nation's morals foully stained. 

Despite all virtue's laws by God himself ordained ; 

Marked their career with blasphemies and oaths. 

And every viler art that virtuous manhood loathes ; 

Turned from their holy use the temples reai'ed for praise, 

And hu«hed devotion's voice in bacchanalian lays. 

Sad were the scenes, one hundred years ago. 

That smote the heai't's full font and bade its waters flow. 

The statesman's cares, the patriot's love, the Christian's zeal, 

With parents' fondest hopes and country's common weal. 

In sorrow all beheld, ingulfed in artful snares. 

The direful chaos threat'ning all the varied cares 

Of social life, of country's love, of reverence divine, 

Fading midst sorrowing scenes that base malign 

The intents of Christian life or worth of civil state. 

Transforming scenes of loveliness to baneful views of hate. 

Thus, round their daily life pollution's seeds wQre sown. 

The withering blight fast gathering till hope was nearly fiown ; 

But hope enkindled new, while faith resumes her sway, 

Insi3iring heai'ts to strive the tide of ill to stay. 

'No longer basely bend the humble, servile knee. 
But cast the shackles off, determined to be free, — 



58 

Free from the vipci'ous coils that firmly round 

The writhini^ form of Liberty, snared and bound 

By fetters of a despot's will. They dared be free, 

And rise from venal vassalage to sacred liberty; 

No glittering bribes allured, no vengeful threats dismayed, 

Of prison wall or gibbet doom in terror's terms arrayed. 

They heeded not the power that cast the withering lilight ; 

Their strength was by integrity, and justice was their right. 

Long-s;iffering ills endured, combined with hope deferred. 

Had roused to strife, the patriot's soul had stirred 

To lii^ht the tires anew at freedom's hallowed fane, 

That fading hopes inspired might rise and live again ; . 

And thus, one hundred years ago, with purpose just, 

The noble patriot band discharged their sacred trust, 

Kindled the beacon-light that lends its cheering rays 

To lift desponding hearts till pagans rise in praise. 

Aus])icious day, laden with man}^ a sad'ning care, 

AVhile clouds of ill a threat' ning aspect wear. 

The lustre of thy dawning no terrors can destroy. 

The shadow cast in passing but brightens thoughts of joy; ■ 

Nor gloomy words of oracles can steadfast hearts alarm. 

The glowing love of liberty gives strength to patriot arm. 

Firm to their trust, no trembling hand the standard rears, 

Xo doubtful, faltering hearts succumb to craven fears; 

Unawed by threat'ning woes, they tirmly dare to brave 

The ills of warring strife, to sacred honor save. 

Thus stood the noble baud in freedom's bright array, 

United hqart and hand, as Hancock led the way. 

Unflinchingly their sigil then they trace on honored scroll, 

And l)id the waves of tyranny restrain their onward loU. 

The beaming eye of hallowed faith scans midst the struggling 

throes 
That day of joy, by heaven's aid, that conquers freedom's foes. 
Nerved for the strife, while justice points the way, 
Eefulgent shines the beacon that summons to the fray: 
O'er hill, through dale, in war's array they come, 
While loud is heard the cannon peal and roll of stirring drum. 
In quick response the sons of toil forsake their daily cares. 
While ermined judge lays by his robe, and freely danger shares. 
Not Mammon's power in marts of trade can patriot ensnare. 
While trom the sacred desk ascends the hero's heartfelt prayer. 
Let memory for deeds of worth with admiration glow. 
And love for those heroic acts, one hundred years ago; 



59 

Let memories- past revive, go search historic page, 
Aud from the insj^iration drawn our highest thoughts engage; 
Amid a century's changing scenes let fancy freely roam, 
While on the tablet of the heart engrave the sacred tome, 
The deeds of valor and of worth recorded time reveals, 
The wail of anguish that ascends from bloody battle-fields, 
The matron's heart that suffering bleeds amid her daily cares, 
The aching breast, the sorrowing look, the anxious maiden wears; 
"While all of lovely innocence, that childhood's days surround, 
Is clouded by the wail of woe that o'er the land resounds. 
Return to scenes of sorrowing, where mercy drops a tear. 
Where famine, want, and suffering in dread array appear, 
When gloom and dark despondency is gathering thick around, 
When winter's sufferings bloody trace leave on the frozen ground, 
When carnage red on battle-fields the demon war has made. 
And many a loved and manly form in death is lowly laid; 
Amid the dark sepulchral gloom a halo light we see. 
Benignant falls its genial rays, — the star of liberty; 
It guided at the council board ; it led the war host well ; 
Its radiance cheered the drooping soul Avhen shading sorrow fell; 
It nerved the warrior for the strife with talismanic sway. 
And gilds the victor's laurelled brow with bright, triumphant ray, 
In holy faith our fathers sought for guidance by its rays, 
Till freedom raised its oriflamb midst notes of lofty praise. 
Then garnered be the glorious thoughts that cluster round this day; 
While heavenward tend our highest thoughts to reverent homage 

pay. 
And whilst the tide of time rolls on in steady flow, 
Enhancing joys of liberty, expand to stainless glow, 
And round our country's welfare bind the cordon of our love. 
To wipe the spots from golden sky by faith in heaven above. 

On rapid wings of time one hundred years have flown, 
While blessings scattered in their path to full fruition grown. 
Guiding the beaming eye of faith to future glory see, 
Circling its hallowed light around our land of liberty, 
Lighting the blissful form of peace with rays of diamond glare, 
Bright glancing from the coronals that truth and justice wear. 
While lovelier virtue stands enshrined in rays of azure light. 
Reflecting in the trusting heart in beams divinely bright, 
While souls with adoration filled, will carol notes of praise. 
And love will rise resplendent for worth of other days; 
And while the altar fires of love will ever brightly glow, 
The victor's gariand wreath for deeds one hundred years ago, 



60 

The laurel bright will never fade that virtue's brow surrounds, 
Xor notes of adoration cease, while gratitude abounds. 

Then garnered ])e the glorious thoughts that cluster round this day. 
While heavenward tend our highest thoughts to reverent homage 

"While memory shall linger by till sun of life has set, 
Ti) reverence pay for joys we reap, we never can forget; 
While ever welling from the soul let purest incense flow. 
In tribute to the patriot worth one hundred years ago. 
And while with emulation just the jo}' in hearts expands, 
For summit height of glory, where country proudly stands. 
Let not the heart diverted be from following the rays 
Of that bright star that guided the wortliy patriot's ways; 
And for that noble hero, the van wlio bravely led. 
Our hearts will never cease the warmest love to shed. 
For blessings that surround us to cheer life's journey on, 
Tlie homage of our hearts we pay to fame of Washington. 

For Braintree's honored sage, wliose dx5's were nobly spent. 

And to his life of virtue a brilliant lustre lent. 

For steadfast patriot worth, unsullied by a stain, 

A nation's gratitude bestOAved will ever bright remain; 

While ever an admiring world will honored tribute pay. 

For justice and integrity that ever marked his way; 

Virtues together blending to grave on shaft of fame. 

In furrowed lines that ne'er will fade the patriot Adams'' name. 

Amid this day's rejoicings, just fifty years ago. 

While happy hearts, exuberant, with gratitude o'erflow. 

Then comes the silent messenger, the ties of life to sever. 

As was his last, be ever ours, the cry, ^^Independence forever !^^ 



COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 



ELIAS HAYWARD. 
SAMUEL A. BATES. 
JOSEPHUS SHAW. 



ELISHA THAYER. 
ASA T. PRATT. 
JAMES T. STEVENS. 



N. EUGENE HOLLIS. 



MORNING. 

The form:il exercises connected with the centennial 
celebration ;it Briiintree were preceded by the early ringing 
of bells and firing of guns, large and small, and by a very 
entertaining procession of "Antiques and Horribles." 

At half past ten o'clock a procession was formed near the 
First Coiigi'ogalional Church, under the chicf-marshalship of 
Cranmore N. Wallace, Esq., with the following aids : — 

Joseph H. Mellus, E. Watson^ Arnold, 

George D. AVillis, Amasa S. Thayer, 

Albert E. Avery, Albert Hobart, 

William A. Koss, Albion C. Dkinkwater, 

iST. R. Procter. 

The formation of the procession was as follows : — 

Platoox of Police, Horace Faxon, Chief. 

Braixtree Brass Baxd, Alonzo Bond, Leader. 

Po«t 87, " Gex. Sylvanus Thayer," Grand Army of the Republic, 

Edward L. Curtis, Commander ; Henry A. Monk, Adjutant. 

President of the day, Orator, and Poet. 

Invited Guests and Committee of Arrangements in carriages. 

r)itAiNTREE Fire Department, John Cavanagh, Chief Engineer. 

liUTCiiER Boy Engine, No. 2, Geo. Sumner, Foreman. 

Weymouth Drum Corps, Albert Whitmarsh, Leader. 

Union Engine, Xo. 1, Thomas O. Sullivan, Foreman. 

Wampatuck Hook and Ladder, Augustus F.Hannaford, Foreman. 

Braintree Drum Corps. 

Public Schools in carriages. Citizens in carriages and on foot. 

Cavalcade. 

The procession moved promptly at eleven a. m. through 
the following streets : Washington, School, Railroad, Elm, 
and Washington .Streets to the South Village ; thence through 
Taylor, Trcmont, and Washington Streets to the Town Com- 
mon, where at quarter past twelve p. m. the parade was 



63 

dismissed, and Ji 1)nnntiful collution partaken of in a mam- 
moth tent on the Common. 

On its march through Washington Street, nearly opposite 
the entrance to School, it passed the residence of the venerable 
Mrs. Mai-y White, who had completed her one hundredth 
year in the month of February before, and was then in the 
enjoyment of excellent health, and with hardly any percepti- 
ble impairment of her mental faculties. 



AFTERNOON. 

At half pnst one p. m. the officers of the d;iy and invited 
guests entered the Town Hall, escorted by the chief marshal 
and aids, and took seats on the platform. 

The exercises were then introduced l)y Elias Hayward, 
Esq., chairman of the Cunimittee of Ari-angements, as 
follow^s : — 

Ladiks a:n^d Gentlemen of Braintree: — 

We are assembled this day to celebrate the one hundredth anniver- 
sary of our national independence. It is a good day, a glorious day for 
our Eepublic, a glad day tor old Braintree; and as we engage in its fes- 
tivities, in the song, the roar of cannon and the sound of trumpet, we 
will remember Him, the author of our signal prosperity as a nation 
and town during the past hundred years. But without further remarks 
I will introduce to you the president of the day, Asa French, Esq. 

Mr. French spoke as follows : — 

On the 10th of September, 1707, almost sixty-nine years before the 
Declaration, Avas established the First Church in what was then known 
as the ■' Middle Precinct," which comprised the present town of Brain- 
ti'ee. The years which have elapsed since then have witnessed four 
different meeting-houses on the same spot. In the original building 
were held the town-meetings of the town during that most interesting 
period immediately preceding and covering the Revolution. Within 
its sacred walls were adopted resolutions which, in fervor of patriotism 
and boldness of expression, were unsurpassed anywhere, and its echoes 
rang to words of eloquence, such as the men of those days knew how 
to utter. A line of illustrious and godly ministers occupied the pulpit 



64 

of that church, whose precepts and example exerted a powerful iuthi- 
ence for good, whicli was felt not only in their own day, but will re- 
main so long as time endures. 

In this connection I need only suggest the names of Weld and Xiles 
and Storrs, whose joint pastorates extended over a period of more than 
one hundred and sixty 3'ears. There was a special litness in selecting 
the successor of those noble men to participate in these exercises. 
The Rev. Thomas A. Emerson, minister of the First I'arish in Brain- 
tree, will now conduct the devotional exercises of this occasion. 

Kev. Mr. Emerson read appropriate selections from the 

Scriptures, and otfeiecl prayer. 

The choir, under the direction of Mr. Marcus A. I'erkins, 

then sang 

" To thee, O country I " 

After which the president spoke as follows : — 
Mit. CnAiiniAN, Ladiks and Gentlemen, 

FELLOAV-CrriZENS OF THE OLD TOWN OF I5lJAINTRKE : — 

The nation celebrates to-day the hundredlh anniversary of its birth. 
From the Atlantic to the Pacilic, from its northern borders to the 
Gulf, in every city and town and hamlet all over this broad land, go 
up the voices of thanksgiving and rejoicing as the country enters 
upon the second century of its existence. On this auspicious day, let 
us hope, sectional animosity, if there be any still lingering, and party 
strife will be laid aside, and while together we meditate upon the 
events of the past hundred years, we can all unite in the feeling of 
satisfaction and pride which such a contemplation produces. 

We, fellow-citizens, are assembled to participate in the general 
rejoicing ; and it was eminently lit and proper that, first of all, we 
should render thanks to Ilini who, through all the vicissitudes of our 
national life, has guarded and sustained us to the preseul hour. To 
Him be all the praise! 

In the events which ushered in the Revolution, Massacliusetts bore a 
conspicuous part. It was her statesmen wlio were the earliest to fore- 
see what must be the result of the arbitrary and tyrannous acts of the 
mother-country ; and after all peaceable means of redress had been 
exhausted, and their resjiectful petitions had been spurned with con- 
tempt, it was here that the first overt act of resistance was committed. 
8he it was that furnished the leading spirits in the Congress that de- 
clared the inde])endence of the colonies. 

The voices of her orators were the most eloquent and potent in 
arousing the peojjle to assert their rights, and in inspiring them with 
the courage and fortitude to defend ihem. On her soil Was shed the 



65 

first blood in the cause of American liberty; and in the great struggle 
which ensued, no State contributed more lavishly of men and means to 
the common cause. 

The commonwealth which gave to the country such statesmen and 
orators as Samuel Adams and John Adams. Hancock, Otis, and the 
elder Quincy, and which holds within its borders the historic battle- 
fields of Concord, Lexington, and Bunker Hill, may well exult on this 
day. If her children did not " celebrate it with thanksgiving, with 
festivity, with bonfires and illuminations," if on this centennial anni- 
versary, of all others, we did not "shed tears, copious, gushing tears 
of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy," we should be recreant to the 
great trust committed to us by our fathers, and unworthy uf the pre- 
cious blessings which we have inherited from them. In every possible 
demonstration of rejoicing Massachusetts should be foremost on this 
day. 

But while, as citizens of a common country and of our beloved com- 
monwealth, we participate in the general rejoicing, there is a special 
purpose which brings us together here. It Avas only twenty years 
after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Kock that Braintree 
became a town. 

Its first settlers were among the most influential men in the colony. 
In the events which preceded and accompanied the struggle for inde- 
pendence, its citizens were among the foremost ; and I am told that 
the records of no town in the commonwealth were more full and com- 
plete during that most interesting period. 

In the subsequent war of 1812, and in that terrible struggle for 
national existence in our own time, her sons fully sustained the ancient 
reputation of their native town. 

In whatever was necessary to advance the general weal, she has borne 
her part most faithfully. And yet of the early history of this town, 
of the men who were famous in its councils, and of their deeds which 
contributed to its renown, we of this generation know comparatively 
little. 

We have come to listen to that story, as yet untold. That it will be 
faithfully and instructively portrayed by our towusm;m, the orator of 
the occasion, I need not assure you. 

And as, with gratitude and pride, we learn what our fathers accom- 
plished, not only for us but for the country and the world, we shall 
receive new strength for the present, new hope and inspiration for 
the future. 

A pleasant duty yet remains to me. At different periods of her 
history Braintree has been shorn of large pieces of her territory upon 
the north and south, which have been incorporated as independent 
towns, and in the course of events the children have outgrown the 
mother; yet she contemplates their prosperity to-day with a feeling 
5 



66 

in wliich envy has no share. The staid matron also boasts a grand- 
child of tender years! i As was tit and proper on this thanksL,'iving day, 
she extended a cordial invitation to all the family to assemble in the 
old homestead, and to unite with her in these festivities. AlTection- 
ately and cordially, as becomes dutiful children, they have responded, 
but have excused themselves by reason of festive gatherings at their 
own family boards. We regret their absence exceedingly, but in your 
name, I send to them all cordial salutations. In whatever of jiiide and 
satisfaction may result from a contemplation of the early history of 
the original town, we claim to be admitted, as we cheerfully admit 
them, to a full participation. And to those who, from near or far, have 
been drawn here to-day by affection for their birthplace, or by an- 
cestral ties, I extend a hearty greeting. Welcome all ! The old 
mother opens wide her doors to-day and welcomes home her wander- 
ing children. With high hopes and resolute purpose she crosses the 
threshold of the new century. 

It is not perhaps known to all of you that the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was not signed by the members of the Continental Congress 
until Aug. 2, although the signatures of the jiresident and secretary 
were appended to it July 4, the resolution with which the instrument 
concluded having been adojited two days before. As soon as the 
document had received the signatures of the president and secretary, 
it was ordered that it be printed, and a copy sent to each State, and 
that it be jjroclaimed at the head of the army. JuJj' 17 the Executive 
Council, in Boston, passed an order that copies be sent to every town ; 
that it sliould be read by the ministers from every pulpit, and by them 
transmitted to the town clerk, who was required to enter it at large 
upon the town records. 

I hold in my hands the copy then made upon the Braintree records, 
in a clear, bold hand, by Ebenezer Thayer, the town clerk, who had 
been recently elected to that office as successor of Elisha JS'iles, 
deceased. 

Rethinks I see that sturdy town clerk, as, with hand in which 
there was not the slightest sign of trembling, and with a heart, we may 
be sure, which was a stranger to fear, he transcribed that immortal 
document. From the leading part which he took in public affairs at 
that time, we know that he was a worthy associate of those men who 
had pledged ' their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" in 
defence of liberty. 

The president conclnded by introducing S:i:uned A. Bates, 
Esq., the i)resent town clerk, who lead the Declaration iVoui 
the original records. 

1 Holbrook, incorporated Fob. 29, 1872. 



67 

Following this was music by the Braintree Band. Hon. F. 
A. Hobart was then introduced as the orator of the day, 
and proceeded to pronounce his oration, at the close of 
which the choir sung the "Ode on Science," and a poem by 
Asa T. Pratt, Esq., followed. 

The services, which had been throughout of a most inter- 
esting character, were concluded by the singing of "Old 
Hundred," in which the audience joined, and with the bene- 
diction pronounced by Rev. E. M. Taylor, of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church of Braintiee. A fine display of fireworks 
on the Common, in the evening, attracted a large crowd, and 
brought to a close a remarkably busy and interesting day for 
old Braintree. 

Numerous letters were received by the committee in re- 
sponse to invitations, all of which we should be glad to print 
did space permit. A few of them are appended. 



LETTERS. 

QuiNCY, 22 June, 1876. 
E. IIaywakd and others, Braintree: 

Gentlemen, — I should be very hajjpy to accept your friendly invita- 
tion to be present at your celebratiou of the 4th of July, were it not 
that I had been so liasty as to engage myself elsev/here. I have prom- 
ised to address the citizens of Taunton on the same day. 
Very truly yours, 

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 



House of Representatives, 

Washington, D. C, July 1, 1876. 
Dear Sirs, — I have received your esteemed favor inviting me to be 
present at the Centennial celebration at Braintree. It will not be 
possible for me to be with you on that occasion, which I am sure will 



6S 

be a most intorcstinjT one. There is no town in the comnnnwenltli 
wiiicli can C(!lc;I)mte that da^' with a more just pride in lier iiislory, <>r 
with a more hopeful prospect for the future, than liraiiitree. She 
gave to tlie cause of national independence some of its noldest defend- 
ers, whose names and deeds will not only be rehearsed by her sons, 
but will be on that day upon the lips of every patriot throughout the 
Kepublic. She has in every crisis of the nation been foremost among 
the supporters of its life and honor, and after having given two splen- 
did daughters to the old common wealth, she still remains one of the 
foremost, and is provided with all the conditions of a most prosperous 
future. And, my dear sirs, proud in being the son of such a town, and 
anxious to express most strongly my most earnest desire for her future 
success, I will say: '' May her future success be equal to her past 
merits, and the spirit of 177G and 187G be the spirit of her sons through 
all coming centuries." Regretting that I cannot be with you, and 
appreciating your kind consideration, I am. 

Yours truly, 

CHARLES P. THOMPSON. 

Elias IIaywakd, Esq., and others. Committee. 



Randolph, June 17, 1876. 

Dear Sik, — Your polite official and personal invitation to attend 
the Centennial celebration of old Braintree on the coming "• Fourth " 
was duly received, and would be most gratefully accepted, had not 
Mother Braintree's second daughter, the •' South Precinct," concluded 
at the youthful age of more than fourscore to ''go alone" on the one 
hundredth birthday of National Independence, and with modest 
efforts in " procession, music, oration, decoration, and fireworks," strive 
to keep alive grateful memories of the fathers of our old town, who, ia 
tlieir well-remembered ])rediotions of the future, fell far short of the 
blf^ssings enjoyed by their descendants in the glorious laml of ()ur in- 
heritance. Confident that, in the orations with which Rraiutree and 
her children are to be favored, much will be found to inspire to renewed 
effort in behalf of our whole country, the writer is equally sure that 
the occasion will bring to us stores of historic matter both profitable 
and interesting. 

With best wishes for the success of your celebration, believe me, 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

SETH TURNER. 



69 



Randolph, June 30, 1876. 
Gentlemen, — Your cordial invitati(-n to be present at the Centen- 
nial celebration at Braintree, July 4, 1876, is received. Nothing would 
gratify my feelings more than to accept your complimentary invitation, 
but the ftict that a celebration of like character comes off in " Ye Old 
South Precinct," renders my acceptance somewhat inconsistent. I 
regard with great respect and veneration the old town of Braintree 
and its people, and why should I not? having personally known most 
of the generation that last passed away, and many of those who now 
occupy their places; but more than all, I venerate it from the fact that 
my paternal ancestor as early as 1675 adopted Braintree as his home, 
and to the present time, a period of more than two hundred years, his 
descendants have remained upon the old homestead; and wherever one 
of the name is found in this country, he proudly hails old Braintree as 
the birthplace of his ancestor. 

I congratulate our old mother on this Centennial occasion, that she 
enjoys so great prosperity, happy in all her surroundings; that she 
one hundred years ago contributed so largely to the independence 
of these United States, through the great ability and statesmanship of 
her distinguished sons. I congratulate her on the success of her tvvo 
children, Quincy and Randolph; though comparatively young, being 
but little over fourscore years, perniani-ntly settled within her ancient 
domain, a sober, religious, and industrious people. May the descend- 
ants of the present generation of old Braintree, who, I doubt not, will 
celebrate the two hundredth anniversar}' of American Independence 
at the next centennial in 1976, find the old lady as healthy, wealthy, 
and wise as we find her to-day. One word for myself, in the language 
of another: — 

"I, thoujih the humblest and homeliest one, 
Feel the natural pride of a dutiful son; 
And esteem it to-day the profoundest of joys 
That, not less than yourselves, I am one of her boys." 

Very respectfully your obedient servant, 

BRADFORD L WALES 
Elias Hayward, 

JOSEPIIUS Sri AAV, 

Samuel A. Bates, 
AND OTHEKS, Committee. 



70 



Winchester, Mass., June 22, 1876. 
To THE Committee of the Toavn of Braintree on the Cen- 
tennial Celebration, July 4, 1876: 

Gentlemen, — It would afford me much pleasure to unite with you 
and the citizens of Braintree at the approachin"; celebration of the 
One Hundredth Anniversary of our National Independence. 

Thougli not, strictly speaking, a native of Braintree, my ancestors, 
in several lines, have dwelt there from the settlement of New Eng- 
land till now. The names of Adams, Allen, Bass, Faxon, French, 
Ilayden, Holbronk, I'enniman, Thayer, and White, I recognize as of 
my early ancestry, and old Braintree — including Quincy and Ran- 
dolph — as their home. The word Braintree, when I see it in print, 
never fails to awaken tender emotions in my breast. During six 
3'ears or more, Braintree was my home. In the cemeter\-, in the 
'' Iron Works District," now repose the mortal remains of my grand- 
parents, my parents, and those of my much-beloved eldest son, my 
eldest sister also. • 

Braintree is therefore to me peculiarly honored and dear. I thank 
the committee for their kind invitation to be present on so interesting 
and cherished an occasion. But it will be utterly out of my power. 
During the last four years, I have been confined to my home, and 
most of the time to my chamber, by painful and incurable illness. I 
have been unable to visit the house of God, or to receive company, or 
to attend to any worldly business. I have resigned all my earthly 
cares to tlie bands of my wife and son, and am, in respect to business, 
a mere wreck. I am now sevent3^-five years and some months old; 
and thougii mj^ pen is almost constantly employed, I am looking for 
a speedy departure from this world. 

1 trust the citizens of Braintree will have a good time. I must ask 
the committee to send me whatever may be printed on the subject, 
particularly the Address and Oration. 

You know I take a lively interest in the early history of our country. 

The Proceedings of the 250th Anniversary of the Permanent Settle- 
ment of Weymouth, with the Historical Address, by Hon. Charles 
Francis Adams, Jr., were kindly sent to me by Mr. Adams, who had 
kindly. consulted me on " Old Spain" some time previous, while pre- 
paring the Address. 

I called on John Adams, his honored great-grandfather, in 1826, 

about a month before he died. He recognized our relationship. My 

father's mother was an Adams. Said he, " I have known your family 

these fourscore years." I received my name in remembrance of him. 

With great respect, yours, 

JOHX ADAMS VINTON. 

God bless old Braintree! 



71 



Milton, July, 1S76. 
Elias Hayavard, Esq., and others, Committee: 

Gentlemen, — Please accept my thanks for the invitation to your 
Centennial celebration, although other arrangements debar me 
from the pleasure of being present, which I the more regret for the 
reason that your ancient town has most intimately associated its name 
and renown with the annals of American Independence. 

The President of the Convention, which in the earliest hour of the 
struggle, the 9th of September, 1774, adopted the memorable resolves 
written and reported by Joseph Warren, which bid defiance to the 
vengeance of Great Britain, and which on their approval a few days 
after, at the opening of the Continental Congress, were declared to be 
'•'■nothing short of a declaraiion of independency, without room for 
retreat,^' was Joseph Palmer, of Braiutree. 

His name, and that of Col. Ebenezer Thayer, of Braiutree, were 
associated also with that of Major-General Joseph Wan en, as a com- 
mittee to sound the note of alarm and remonstrance against the forti- 
fications on ]3oston Neck. 

At the time when Chai'les Carroll signed the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, some one suggested at the moment that there was another person 
of that name, and that the act involved the peril of their lives, when he 
forthwith added ''o/ Carrolltony 

Had such occasion existed, old Braintree, the birthplace of Hancock 
and John Adams, would have seen her name emblazoned with that 
of hei" illustrious sons upon the same imperishable record. 

But local allusions must give place and converge to-day in the re- 
splendent rays Avhich reflect the centennial glories of the Republic. 
At this evening hour we may but repeat the words of John Adams, 
uttered at the time of the Declaration, its century of prophecy fulfilled. 

" But the day is past." " The most memorable epoch in the history of 
America; to be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great an- 
niversary festival, commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn 
acts of devotion to Almighty God, from one end of the continent to 
the other, from this time forward forevermore." 

In our offerings of gratitude on this centennial era, we may not 
forget our obligations to those from other lands, who, in the days of 
darkness and distress, so generously contributed of their treasures, and 
by their army and navy, and the valor of their sons, aided the patriot 
fathers in their achievements in the day of battle. Washington and 
Lafayette; the closing scenes of Yorktown in October, 1781; the final 
victory that twined double garlands around the banners of France and 
America. 



72 

France. — Amid the stern vicissitudes of her national histoj-y, this 
anniversary sends greeting to tlie hero of Magenta to-day, that for- 
saking the paths of empire by the sword of conquest, and chid in the 
panoply of a kindred faith, she marched onward to the surer triumphs 
of a nobler civilization. 

Very respectfully, 

NATIl'L F. SAFFORD. 



APPE]SrDIX. 



APPENDIX A. 

In the appendix is matter culled mostly from the ancient records 
of Braintree. Where allusion is made in the address to what may 
be considered controverted points, I have thought it proper, in 
bottom notes and appendix, to give the authorities on which the 
statements were made. 

F. A. H. 



APPENDIX A. — NOTE 2. 

POPULATION, 1875. 

Males. 

Braintree 1,999 

Quiucy 4,598 

Eaudolph 2,033 

Holbrook, 862 



APPENDIX A. — NOTE 3. 

VALUATION, 1875. 



Females, 


Total. 


2,157 


4,150 


4,557 


9,155 


2,031 


4,004 


864 


1,720 



19,101 



Braintree 
Quincy 
Randolph 
Holbrook 



Personal 
Property. 

#732,550 

1,730,475 

019,390 

200.070 


Real 
Estate. 

#2,030,950 
5,577,550 
1,441,840 

738.570 


§2,288,485 


#9,794,910 
2,288,485 



Total 



12,083,395 



74 



APPENDIX A.— NOTE 4. 



The populatiou of IJraintree at diflereiit iutfrvals since 1800 is tluis 
exliil)itr(l : — 



In ISOO 1.285 

In ISIO 1,^51 

In ISL'O 1,406 

In 1S.".(» 1,758 

In ]S40 2,108 



In 1850 2,9r,9 

In 18(;0 .•5,4fi8 

lu ]8r.5 :^>,725 

In 1870 3,048 

In 1875 4, I5G 



In 1S70 tlio valuation was 

Personal 
Keal . 



.snr.8,050 

S1,;U3,840 



APPENDIX A. — NOTE 5. 

From jSIassadnisetts Iinlnslrinl Stnlistics (■/ 1875. 



Products, etc. 



JIanufac'tures : — 

Nunil)i'r of establislnncnts 

A'ahie of uoods made 

Value of sloelc used 

Capital invested 

Persons employed • • 

Ajrriculture, iueludinfj domes- 
tic manufactures 



Braintree 



Randolph. 



4:', 
.5!l.724..".()(; 
.•$1. 104.2151 

.•;:;(;48,s8;',j 

92!) 
$101,222 



140 

.$l.P.01,57O 

);i!S00,li)8 

.$207, fi:n 

851 
§51,250 



Quiiicy. 



IK! 

.S2. 187.047 

,$834,424 

.$1,03G..^)98 

1,421 

.$128,100 



nolbrook. 



33 

81.049,790 

§707,1.35 

§229.000 

285 

§11,480 



APPENDIX B. — NOTE 1. 



The Pev. "W. P. Lunt, in an appendix to his " Anniversary Sermons," 
quotes from Upham's " Life of Vane" the noble reply made by Vane when, 
after he had been condemned to death, he was told that bj- submission to 
tlie kinir his life mijrht be saved. "If tlie kinfr," said Vane, "does not 
think himself more concerned for his honor and word than I for my life, let 
Idm take it. Nay, I declare that I value m.v life less in a good cause tlian 
the kinu; can do his promise. He is so sutticiently obliged to spare my life 
tliat it is litter for liim to do it than for me to seek it." 



75 

APPENDIX B. — NOTE 2. 

N.VJIE OF TOWX. 

Just how the name of Braintree came to be adopted will probably never 
be known to the satisfaction of all ; but for the sake of those who may be 
interested in the matter, I ,a:ive the various suggestions that have been 
made by those who have examined the suliject. 

Mr. Lunt, on page 41 of his "Anniversary Sermons," says : "The name 
of the new town, Braintree, was doubtless derived from the Braintree 
company already mentioned, which in 1632 had begun to sit down here, 
and removed hence to Newtown, afterwards Cambridge. This company 
came from Braintree, in Essex County, England. The celebrated Mr. 
Hooker, who the next year came over and found them at NcAvtown, had 
been their minister before they left England. Among the names of that 
company, as given in the history of Cambridge, several occur that are at 
the present day familiar in this vicinity ; and in order to account for the 
name of Braintree being given to this town, we may either adopt the sug- 
gestion that has been made by high authority, that this company remained 
here and did not go to Newtown, or if we think the historical evidence 
conclusive for their removal, we may suppose that several of them returned 
hither, wlien, a few years after, they of Newtown made complaint to the 
General Court for want of room, and when the great body of the company, 
together with their pastor, emigrated to Connecticut River, and laid the 
foundation of Hartford. It is certainly what we should expect, that some 
place among the new settlements should bear the name of a company that 
had for their minister so celebrated a man as Hooker ; and what place more 
likely to receive the appellation than that which offered the first resting- 
place to these pilgrims after their arrival in New Englaud? " 

From the appendix to Mr. Lunt's sermons, page GO, I take this extract : 
" Hon. John Quiucy Adams gives it as his opinion that the Braintree com- 
pany, mentioned by AViuthrop in 1G32 as having begun to settle at Moun 
Wollaston, did not remove ta Newtown, or at least remained, most of them, 
where they had begun to settle, and that it was at their solicitation that the 
name of Braintree, the place in England whence they came, was given to the 
town." To controvert these opinions, we have the high authority of Hon. 
C. F. Adams, who asks, "How came it (the name) to be adopted? A sat- 
isfactory answer to the question is not easy. The topic has been a good 
deal discussed by competent persons, but without leading to any positive 
result. On the one side, it has been maintained that out of the company 
of emigrants from the town of Braintree, in the county of Essex, England, 
who came under the direction of Mr. Hooker in the year 1632, and Avho 
began to settle at Mount Wollaston, a large portion remi\ined, notwith- 
standing the order of the General Court to remove to Newtown, and fi-om 
these might naturally have come the name of their former home ; but this 
conjecture is in conflict with the evidence, for it is very certain that what 



76 

purports to havo been the whole company did obey the order to remove to 
Newton (present Cambridge), and that the names of forty-tive of them are 
preserved in the records of that phice. Most of these people nltimately 
removed with Mr. Hooker to the Connecticut River, and founded the set- 
tlement of Hartford. From this circumstance it has been inferred by 
others that a few, unwilling to make so distant a removal, may have 
accepted allotments (just then freely made) of the lands at Mount WoUas- 
ton. and have come back here to settle. Here, ajrain, there is no positive 
evidence to sustain this conjecture. The number of these straij:irlers could 
at best have been but small. They must have come, if at all, by the year 
1635 : but the allotment to the srreat majority of the settlers likely to deter- 
mine the character of the town took place in 1038 and 1039. In the choice 
of a name, it seems reasonable to suppose that the will of the mass of 
the real inhabitants would be respected. It was from them, I think, 
the town nuist have got the name. It was niainlj^ from them that the 
draft was subsequently made of the colony which removed at a later 
period from Braintree to found the town of Chelmsford. Now, Chelmsford 
is the name of the shire-town of Essex County in England. It is only 
eleven miles from Braintree, and is the place where Kev. Mr. Hooker had 
been settled. It seems to me. therefore, reasonable to suppose that the 
same intiuence which prevailed in namins; the one town in 1040 prevailed 
in namini>; the other in 1055." In attempting; to And the connection, Mr. 
Adams says, "It is just here that the proof completely fails. No such 
connection or identity has or can be now established. The first accounts 
appear the most reliable and sensible." Whitney's " Quincy," after reciting 
the act incorporating; Braintree, says, " The name, accoi'ding to all accounts, 
was given to it from a town of the same name in England." Whitney says, 
"This was the common practice with those who were engaged in the first 
settlement of the country." 

An anecdote is told of the first minister of Boston, that when the Bosto- 
nians. who came from a town of that name in England, wrote home invit- 
ing their minister to join them, he first answered, " I will come, brethren, 
on condition the place is called Boston"; and it was so, nor is it at all to 
be wondered at. Their thoughts naturally turned back to the delightful 
land they had left forever, and it was but in consonance with the best feel- 
ings of the heart to wish to preserve, though it were but in name, some 
memories of the spot which was known to them as the scene of their child- 
hood, the dwelling-place of their relatives, where stood the tombs and 
where rested the bones of their kindred and friends. This would seem to 
be suttieient reason why the Braintree company, "who by all aeeoiints did 
sit down at Mount WoUaston," gave the name to the settlement, and being 
altogether the most conspicuous fact occurring in its history, it would be 
natural that it should make a permanent impression. Though the colony 
itself vKiij all have left, the name remained to the localitj', as did the name 
of Captain WoUaston after he left, and with much more reason. 

Mr. Lunt, on page 17 of his sermons, says that Cotton Mather, in his 
account of Rev. Thomas Hooker, remarks that his "friends came over the 



77 

year before (he came) to prepare for his reception " ; and we learn from Win- 
throp's journal "that Mr. Hooker arrived Sept. 4, 1633." They remained, 
therefore, at Mount Wollastou, before removal to Newtown, at most but 
a few^ months. This brings us close upon the year 1034. The prepon- 
derance of evidence shows that if some of the Braintree people did not 
remain, there were settlers at Wollaston who did, and these undoul)tedly 
acquired the habit of speaking of the Braintree settlement. That the place 
was referred to as Braintree, after the general removal, seems t(j be evi- 
dent from Whitney, page 31, which says, "Mr. Cotton observed in the 
matter of Mr. Wheelwright, the church gave way that he might be called 
to a new church to be gathered at Mount Wollaston, near Braintree." 
This date is supposed to be in 1G3(>. Again, in a note to Hancoclv's ser- 
mons, on page 21, where reference is made to a letter concerning Mr. 
Wheelwright, we find this sentence, "Mr. Wheelwright was a noted 
preacher of the Congregational way, and so remained as long as he lived. 
He was a memljer of the Boston cliurch, was desired by many to be their 
teacher with Messrs. Cotton and Wilson, but the church being so well 
supplied, they by vote, Oct. 30, 1G36, allowed him to preach to some of 
their meml)ers removed to Braintree for the preparing of a church gath- 
ering there." Mrs. Hannah Adams, in her "History of New England," 
says, on page 58, "In 1637 Rev. John Wheelwriglit preached at Braintree, 
which was part of Boston." This would seem to be sufficient to establish 
the fact of a continuous name, after the Braintree colony first planted, if 
not a continuous settlement, and clearly accounts for the present name 
of the town. 



APPENDIX B. — NOTE 3. 

Mr. Adams, in his Town Hall Oration, on page 38, says, "This deed 
came into my possession with other family papers. How we came by it I 
know not, but I am sure it has been held for at least two generations." 
On the back of it are the words, "In the 17th reign of Charles 2d, 
Braintry Indian Deede given 1655 — August 10 — Take greate care of it." 
"My inference is that at a former time, when less value was attached in 
towns to old documents than is the case now, this was placed in the hands 
of John Adams for safe keeping. But I do not think he or his successors 
ever regarded it in any other light than as a trust, and now that this town 
has erected so noble a depository for it, I purpose to restore it, and after 
repairing and putting it in suitable frame, to cause it to be placed in the 
care of the officers of Braintree, for the benefit and for the edification of 
all future generations of the people of the three towns." 

This deed is printed in Whitney's "Quincy." 



APPENDIX B. — NOTE 4. 

Six thousand acres of laud "not to interfere with any grant already 
made " were granted to the inhabitants of Braintree by General Court iu 



78 

October, IGfifi. This land not havin": been laid out June 1.1, 1713, a com- 
mittee was appointed by the town of Braintree to lind tlie land and lay it 
out. In 1717 this ^raut was contirnied to the town l)y the General Court. 
At leni^th it was voted that all persons who paid town taxes in IJraintree 
in the year 1715 should be deemed to have an interest in the iiloresaid 
grant, and the land so granted was laid out, divided, and sold. This land 
constitutes the town of New Braintree, which was incorporated in 1751 
and received its ii\habitants from old Braintree, and is well known for a 
flue farnung town. — Vinton Memorial, p. 41). 



APPENDIX B.— NOTE 5. 

The rise in exchange produced by tlic imprudent issues of pni)i r-money 
in Massachusetts was idl}' attril)uted to decay in trade, and the colony was 
almost unanimously of opinion that trade could only be revived b}'^ an 
additional quantity of bank notes. A few saw the real evil and were for 
calling in the bills that Avere already abroad, but it was determined bj- the 
gi'eat majoritj' that either bj'^ a private or public bank the province should 
be supplied with more money, or rather with more paper. The General 
Court at length resolved to place bills for lifty thousand pounds in the 
hands of trustees, who were to lend them with five per cent interest, with 
stipulation that one fifth of the pi'incipal should be paid annu;Uly. Still 
trade would not improve. Mr. Shute, who had just succeeded Mr. Dudly, 
attributed the fact to a scarcity of money, and reconnnended that some 
eft'ective measures should be taken to make it more abundant. The 
specifii: was therefore doubled. But an additional issue of one hundred 
thousand pounds so greatly depreciated the value of the currency that the 
General Court were at last enabled to see the true cause of the ditliculty, 
and the governor, too, when his salary came to be voted in the depre- 
ciated money according to its nominal amount, began to be somewhat 
sceptical of his polic}'. — Pefplt's History of America, p. 350. 



APPENDIX B. — NOTE G. 

"Whitney, on page 50 of his History, mentions the remains of a furnace 
bordering on Milton, built two hundred years ago, — 18;!0. The dam was 
still standing in Whitney's time, and ciudei's were to be found around it. 
Tradition carried it back prior to 1G50. Mr. Adams, in his Town Hall 
Oration, on page 11 of his appendix, says, "There is a brook in Quincy 
which has ever borne the name of Furnace Brook, in one part of which 
remains visible to this day the form of a dam and a furnace, and where 
slugs of iron and cinders have been from time to time found imbedded in 
the soil. The place had been long abandoned when the development of 
the stone business in 182G brought it once more into notice." 



79 



APPENDIX B. — NOTE 7. 

Note to page 301, Vinton's Memorial, says Col. John Quiucy, of Braiu- 
tree, Avas bom in 1G39, "and was one of the most distinguisliecl public 
men of that period. He was fortj^ years representative of Braintree in 
the General Court, and many j'ears in succession Speaker of the House. 
He was also member of Executive Council." It was for him the present 
town of Quiucy was named when set ofl', the Hon. Richard Cranch recom- 
mending it. 



APPENDIX C — NOTE 1. 

AN ANCIENT INDENTURE. 

Tlie following is a copy of an ancient indenture, preserved among tlie 
papers of tlie late Thomas Howard, Esq. : — 

"This indenture witnesseth that Aaron Hayward sou of Samuel Hay- 
ward and Mary Hayward of Braintree, in the County of Suffolk in the 
Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England, Hath put himself, and by 
these Presents doth voluntarily and of his own free will and accord, and 
with the free consent of his Mother Mary Hayward, testified her hand and 
seal hereunto set. Put and bind himself Apprentice to John Adams of 
Braintree aforesaid, Cordwainer, or his heirs to Learn his art, & with him 
or them after the manner of an apprentice to serve from the day of the 
date hereof, for and during the term of six years, four months, & sixteen 
dayes from thence next ensuing, to be compleated and ended. During all 
whicli term, the said apprentice his s<i Master or his Heirs faithfully shall 
serve, their secrets keep, and Lawful commands obey; He shall do no 
damage to his Master or his Heirs nor see it done of others, without 
Letting, or giving notice thereof to his Master, or his Heirs, he shall not 
wast sJ Masters or his Heirs goods, nor Lend them to any without Leave. 
He shall not commit fornication nor contract Matrimony within sd Term ; 
at Cards, Dice or any other unlawful Games he shall not play, whereby 
his said Master or his heirs may have damage. He shall not absent him- 
self by day or by night from his Master or his Heirs service without their 
Leave nor hant Taverns, ale-houses, or Play houses, but in all things 
behave himself as a faithful apprentice, towards his Master and all his 
during said Term. In consideration whereof the said John Adams the 
said Master, for himself and his heirs doth hereby Covenant and Promise 
to teach and Instruct or cause to be taught and instructed tlie said appren- 
tice, in the art trade or calling of a Cordwainer, which he now useth, by the 
best wayes or meanes he can, finding unto the said apprentice good and 
suflicient meat, drink, apparel with washing and Lodging, and all other 
necessaries botli in health and siclcness, during the said Term, likewise to 
Learne him to write and Cipher, and at the expiration of the said Term, 
to give unto the s^ apprentice two Good suits of apparrel, for all parts ox 



80 

his l)0(ly both woolen and Linncn, suitable for such an api)rentice, and a 
seat of ^ood workinj; Genre. In testimony whereof the parties to these 
I'resents, have hereunto interchangeably set their hands and seals, the 
twenty sixth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand seven 
hundred and twenty-six, and in the twelve^' year of his Majesties Heign, 
King George & : 

Signed Sealed and deliveretl in Tresence of 

AaKON IIAYWAUI). 
JoSlMMl KlVG. 

Bktiiiau Adams. 

Mary iiayward." 

Dea. ,lolin Adams, above named, Avas father of President John Adams. 

E. A. 



APPENDIX D. — NOTE 1. 

I liave thought it worth while to ai)pend the transactions of the town 
from 1(J40 to 1815 in a condensed form as they appear in the records. 

ICAO to l(!-t4. Contains reference to school fund, to mill of Kichard 
Rigid, "and a footway over the old bridge to meeting-house," and a 
restriction on the sale of houses and hmds without consent of authorities. 

1()44. Orders sale of a part of the marsh for the "Elders use." 

1G.")0. lielatiug to "Townsmen of Braintree," concerning "Cattel" on 
the Counnou, given in text. 

10.33. Restricts strangei's from locating in the town "without per- 
mission." 

IG.Jd. " Common made free to all inhabitants." 

10(il>. Town vote gives equal rights, by paying equal charges, to the 
grant of six thousand acres made by General Court in lOOC. 

IC,72. House and laud "for an orchard " voted to "use of the ministry." 

1(>73. Aijout laying out the six thousand acres; parties to have 1,500 
acres for survey. 

Knl. Vote regulating Mr. Fiske's salary at eighty pounds. 

1(!74. Action taken about the "old mill," which had l)een burned. 

1(!78. Vote to give schoolmaster thirty pounds a year and an allotment 
of land, " ordering that each child should carry to the school-master half 
a cord of wood beside the quarter money every year." 

1(;7!>. Reference made to lands deeded by Wampatuck. 

1(;.S2. Town votes Mr. Fiske ninety pounds. 

irj!)0. Mr. Fiske's salary goes back to eighty pounds. 

1G;);5. Town ollicers are five selectmen, two constables, five tithing-men, 
four surveyors of highways, eight viewers of fences. Town votes to 
authorize selectmen to "seat the meeting-house." 

101)5. Town votes to raise pastor's salary by contributiou. Vote given 
in text. 

l(i!»5. Town votes to " repair meeting-house and stop leak on south 



81 

side." Also, to settle in full with the school-master by pajing him "ten 
pounds extra." 

1696. Salary of representative fixed at six pounds per annum. "Ten 
shillings to be paid for looking after boys at meeting." The pastor, on 
having his salary fixed at ninety pounds, gives a receipt in full " from the 
beginiug of the world to this day." 

1697. Selectmen authorized to permit " fiimily pews in Meeting House." 

1698. "Four Loving Friends " authorized to look after the lauds claimed 
by Boston parties. 

1703. Difficulty in arranging the minister's salary. 

1704. Minister's salary fixed at ninety pounds, he " finding wood," and 
on this Mr. Fiske releases again " from the begining of the world." 

1707. Vote to recognize the right of the congregation to worship God 
in the new meeting-house and other matters settled in "peace and sat- 
isfaction." 

1708. Precinct lines established. 

1710 Six pounds per annum allowed for the "Keeping of Bulls," and 
each boy attending winter scliool was required to bring " a load of wood." 

1713. Town acts with reference to having the 6,000 acre grant recon- 
firmed, "if the time had lapsed." 

1714. Voted, To sell land granted by " the Honorable Court," the same 
having been reconfirmed to the town. 

1715. Committee appointed to report on laying out " 6,000 acre grant." 

1716. Voted, Not to sell 6,000 acre grant. 

1718. A committee of seven chosen to determine proprietorship of 
6,000 acre grant. Committee report that the grant "belongs to persons 
who were freeholders at the time." 

1719. The report of committee on 6,000 acre grant was defeated. Vote 
passed not to sell or lease. This vote was reconsidered, and voted to sell, 
"proceeds to go to the town." 

1720. Action on " Grant," but nothing decided. At later meeting, voted 
"half proceeds of the laud go to the town use." 

1721. As a "peacable settlement" the inhabitants paying charges in 
1715 were to have property in the "Grant." Town takes its share of 
" Bills of Credit." This year the movement against the dam and forge for 
obstructing the Monatiquot commenced. 

1723. Town forbids rebuilding of the dam. 

1725. Vote to petition General Court for the " demolishment of dam." 
1725. Town acts, witli reference to leasing the "Common," in the 
negative. 

1727. For tlie "more peaceful settlement" of the "Grant," Voted, 
"That the lands be divided between the two precincts" equally, each to 
dispose of its share. 

1728. New precinct made by order of General Court. Town refuses to 
allow new precinct to have school part of the year, or to abate taxes in 
case the precinct maintain its own schools. Trouble from trespassers on 
Common with regard to stones. Town assented to prayer of new precinct 
for separation. 

6 



82 

1730. Jroncy voted to new precinct for school purposes. 

1732. Coinnilttee appointed to protect flsli in the rlvir. Votfd, That 
North and Middle Precinct slioiild have two selectmen eacii. and South 
one. 

173.5. Petition to General Court for consideration for loss of 4.(iOO acres 
to Milton. More action for free passage of fish. 

1736. Voted that town meetings be held half in North and Middle 
Precincts. Owner of dam reftises to sell; town votes to i)ull down dam 
and '• defend in law." Voted three hundred pounds to owner. 

1738 Price of stones per load fixed at twelve pence. Voted, pay con- 
stables five pounds per annum. Vote to divide Suffolk into two counties. 

1753. Voted to divide the "town commons " by polls. Price of stones 
doubled to those carrying off the same. 

17r)4. Committee appointed with power to lease " Commons." 

1701. Town votes to license innholders. 

1702. Lessees of " South Common " petition " to throw up lease." 
1762. A committee was appointed, John Adams chairman, to consider 

the question of the "Commons." They report in favor of selling lands, 
and town votes to sell, and finally votes to ratify sales to "use of min- 
istry." Subsequently, by vote, the " North Commons" were sold. 

176r>. Connnittee appointed on the Stamp Act. Report referred to in 
text. 

1766. Town denies its obligations to compensate for "Late Riots.' 
Afterwards votes to approve " Compensation Bill." 

1768. Passes patriotic resolutions, and votes to do without foreign 
articles and to join a convention of towns. 

1773. Committee report resolutions on "Rights and Privileges." 

1774. Town repudiates the charge of persecuting Tories, believing in 
the right of "private judgment." Report of the committee on correspond- 
ence adopted. Delegates appointed to Provincial Congress. 

1775. Covenant of agreement reported. 



RESOLUTIONS. 

]\rarcli r>, 1773. Voted, The committee appointed to take under consid- 
eration the i)aniphlet referred to, relative to our rights and privileges, etc., 
made report to the town as follows, viz : — 

"1. That we apprehend the state of the rights of the colonists, and oi 
this Province in particular, together with a list of the Infringements and 
violations of those rights as stated in the Pamphlet committed to us, are 
in general fairly represented, and that the town of Boston be hereby thanked 
for this instance of their extraordinary care of the publick welfare. 

"2. That all taxations, by what name soever called, imposed upon us 
without our consent by any eartldy power, are unconstitutional, oppress- 
ive, & tend to enslave us. 

"3. That as our Fathers left their native country & Friends in order 



83 

that they & their Posterity might enjoy that civil aud religious Liberty 
here which they could not enjoy there, we, their descendants, are deter- 
mined by the grace of God that our consciences sliall not accuse us with 
having acted unworthy such pious & venerable Heroes, and that we will 
by all lawful ways & means preserve at all events all our civil and religious 
rights and privileges. 

" 4. That by the divine constitution of things there is such a connection 
between civil and religious lil)erty that in whatsoever nation or govern- 
ment the one is crushed the other seldom, if ever, survives long after. Of 
this History furnishes abundant evidence. 

" 5. That all civil officers are or ought to be servants to the people and 
dependent upon them for their official suppoi't, and every instance to the 
contrary, from the Governor downwards, tends to crush and destroy civil 
liberty. 

" 6. That we bear true loyalty to our lawful King George the 3d and 
unfeigned atlection to our brethren in Great Britain & Ireland to all our 
sister colonies, and so long as our mother Country protects us in our 
charter riglits aud privileges, so long will we bj'- diviue assistance exert 
our utmost to promote the welfare of the whole British Empire, which 
we earnestly pray may flourish uninterruptedly in the paths of rigliteous- 
ness till time shall be no more. 

" 7. That Mr. Thayer, our Eepresentative, be directed, & he hereby is 
dii'ected, to urge his utmost endeavors that a Day of Fasting & Prayer 
be appointed throughout the Province for humbling ourselves before God 
in this day of darkness, aud imploring divine direction & assistance. 

"8. That an attested Copy of the Town's pi'oceediugs in this matter 
be ti'ausmitted as soon as may be by the Town Clerk to the Boston 
Committee. 

"All which is humbly submitted by the Town's Committee & humble 
servants, 

"JOSEPH PALMER. 

BENJ. BEALE. 
JONATHAN WILD." 

Jau. 23, 1775. Foted, That a committee of seven take under considera- 
tion the resolve of the Congress respecting encouragement of the militia. 

Then, Deacon Palmer, Mr. J. P. Adams, Mx-. Edmund Sopcr, Capt. 
Hayden, Mr. Sawen, Capt. Penniman, and Mr. Azariah Faxon were 
appointed a committee for that purpose. Said committee oflered their 
report to the town as follows : — 

That, whereas much time is generally spent by the militia of this town 
in perfecting themselves in necessary military exercises, many of whom 
cannot well aft'ord it, and it being wisdom at all times, especially at this, to 
put ourselves into a good state of defence, and being desirous to encourage 
a military spirit in the most equitable manner, do Vote, That from and after 
the last day of this month until the last day of March next, every person 
in the militia who shall attend said exercises shall be paid out of the town 
treasury for eveiy half-day's attendance. Provided, Such person shall be 



84 

paid lor uo more than oue half day iu a week, and provided, also, that the 
captain and clerk of each and every military company do certify to the 
selectmen for the time being that snch person has faithfully attended his 
duty at said exercises from throe o'clock to six o'clock in the afternoon 
of such days at which hours the roll shall be called, and uo person paid who 
has not attended and answered to both calls on each and every such day, 
and the parents, masters, or guardians of such as are under age shall be 
paid for such minors; and provided, also, that all such as may not be suf- 
ficiently equlpt with anus and ammunition in the judgment of the field offi- 
cers shall have his said wages laid out for such equipment, and sucli as are 
sufficiently equipt shall receive their said wages iu money when the said 
treasury is in cash. 

Voted, That the town allow the militia that attend exei'cises agreeable 
to the above report one shilling for each and every half-day. 

March 13, 1775. Voted, A committee consisting of nine be raised to 
consider what encouragement may be proper to l)e given to such as may 
enlist and form themselves into companies of minute-men. 

Then, John Adams, Esquire, Edmund Billings, John Hall, Jr., Colonel 
Thayer, Edward Soper, John Vinton, Lieut. Joshua Haywood, Jona. 
Bass, and Capt. Peuniman were chosen a committee for that purpose. 

March 15, 1775. The committee appointed the sixth of March, inst., to 
prepare a covenant agreeable to the association of the Continental Con- 
gress, to be adopted ])y this town, oflered the same to the town, as 
follows, viz. : — 

1. That we will not import from Great Britain or Ireland or from any 
other place any such goods, wares, or merchandise as shall have been 
imported from Great Britain or Ireland nor will we from this Day import 
any East India [tea?] from anj' part of the world nor any molasses, 
syrups, panaly, cottee or peimento from the British Plantations or Domin- 
ions or wines from Madeira or the Western Islands or foreign indigo. 

2. That we will neither emploj' or purchase any slave imported since 
the first day of December last; and will wholl}^ discontinue the slave 
trade and will neither be concerned in it ourselves nor will we hire onr 
vessels nor sell our commodities or manufactures to those who are con- 
cerned in it. 

3. As a non-consumption agreement strictly adhered to will be an 
eftectual security for the ol)servation of the non-importation, we as above, 
solemnly agree and associate that from this day we will not purchase or 
use any East India tea whatever; uor will we nor any person by or under 
us, purchase or use any of those goods, wares or merchandise we have 
agreed not to import which we shall know or have any cause to suspect 
were imported since the first day of December last except such as come 
under the rules and directions of the tenth article of the association of the 
Continental Congress. 

The foregoing association being determined upon by tlie town of Brain- 
tree, very unanimously, at a full meeting of the inhabitants, March 15, 
1775, was ordered to be recorded in the town book, and that every house- 



85 

holder within said town be supplied with a printed copy thereof by Elisha 
Niles, town clerk. 

The committee appointed to consider relating to minute-men oflered 
their report as follows : "The committee, etc., report as their opinion that 
it is proper for this town to make provision for three companies of minute- 
men, each to consist of Forty-one men including officers, one company to 
be raised in each Precinct & that each man in these companies be allowed 
by the Town one shilling and four pence per day for one day in every 
week during the pleasure of the Town : Provided that he shall attend the 
exercises under arms from two to six o'clock and the clerk of the company 
& the captain shall certify that he was present at the calling of the roll at 
two o'clock & at six o'clock in the afternoon of the exercising days : and 
upon this condition also that he sliall be completely provided with arms & 
ammunition according to the recommendations of the Provincial Congress. 
Signed by oixler of the Committee, John Adams, Chairman." 

Votfd, That the Selectmen in the several precincts in this Town be 
desired & directed to supply the officers of the minute-men in their respec- 
tive precincts with money to pay ofl' said men day by day : And in case 
there shall be no publick monies which may without prejudice be applied 
to said purpose, that they borrow money on the Town's credit to effect it. 

March 11, 1776. Voted, To choose a committee of safety to take under 
their inspection & care the publick aflairs relative to the unhappy struggle 
& war we are involved in, agreeable to the resolves of the Geul. Courts, 
said Committee to consist of nine and to serve the Town without any 
demands therefor. 

March 25, 1776. Voted, That Col. Joseph Palmer, Sam'. Niles, Esqr. & 
Thos. Penniman Esqr. be a Committee to engage some suitable Gentleman 
to deliver at our meeting for the choice of a Representative in May next a 
Political Discourse relative to our national rights, civil & religious. 

June 5, 1776. Voted, That Dea". Daniel Arnold, Samuel Niles Esqr. & 
Thomas Penniman be a Committee to return the thanks of this Town to 
Revd. Wm. Anthony AViburt for the suitable discourse delivered by him at 
our meeting in May last. 

July 15, 1776. Voted, To give to each non-commission officer & soldier 
that shall inlist in the present expedition to Canada, six pounds, six shil- 
lings & eight pence in addition to the bounty allowed by the Coui't, to be 
paid to them on their receiving orders to march out of this Colony. 

Aug. 19, 1776. Voted, That one hundred & Twenty-six pounds, thirteen 
shillings & fourpence be assessed on the Polls & Rateable Estates within 
said Town for the purpose hereafter mentioned. 

Voted, To reimburse the money to those persons that imbursted it to 
forward the troops on the present expedition to Canada for the north & 
middle precincts in said Town. 

Voted, That the south precinct be allowed ^g out of the above sum 
which is equal to forty pounds, for the use & expence of hireiug men to go 
on the aforesaid expedition to Canada, out of the said south precinct iu 
said town. 



86 

Voted, That the Selectmen be a Coniiiiittee to settle Avitli tliose persons 
that liave inil)urst'tecl the moneys to pay the Troops aforesaid. 

Viit'd, To raise a Conmiittee to procure the first Levy of every twentj-- 
flfth man in this town, aj^reeable to a IJesolve of the General Court, when 
call(ed) for, upon the Ik-asonablest Tearuis they can & lay their ace', 
before the Town. 

Vuted, that this committee consist of three, viz : Capt. Edmond Billing, 
Deacon James Pennimau & Decn. Peter Thayer. 

Voted, to exempt those persons fl'om their Poll Tax that are in the Con- 
teuautel army that marched out of this town before the llrst day of June 
last. 

Sept. 23, 1770. Voted, that each soldier that shall engage to go to New 
York in Couiplyance with the Eequisition of the Continantel Congress 
shall have six pounds per month, including what is allowed by the 
Congress during the time of his being in the service. 

Voted, to advance to each soldier that shall engage as above Two 
Pounds, to be paid him previous to his marching. 

Note. — At tliis point in the records the Declaration of Independence is written out in 
full. 

May 22, 1777. Voted, To allow those persons that was in the Continen- 
tal Army last May and marched out of New England, who are not engaged 
in said Army at this time, the sum of Ten Pounds for the sufferings the 
last j^ear, provided they will now engage in said Continental Army for 
three j'ears. 

Sept. 8, 1777. Voted, That the Town now raise another Committee to 
use their utmost endeavors in this Town or elsewhere to procure a sufti- 
cient number of men to make up their quota for the Continental Army, if 
possible, and likewise to indemnify Colo. Ebenezer Thayer, Junr., from any 
Time that may l)e laid on him in omiting to draft the men agreeable to a 
Resolve passJ tlie 15th day of August last past. The aforegoing vote being 
read several times in the Town meeting was accepted. 

Voted, The aforesaid Committee consist of six men. Then, Dean. Eben- 
ezer Adams, ^Messrs. Joseph Baxter, William Penuiman, Cap". Silas Wild, 
]\Iajr. Setli Turner, & Lieu'. Ephraim Thayer be a Committee for the afore- 
said purpose. 

Voted, To supply the families of those persons belonging to this 'J'own 
■who shall enlist into the Continental Army with necessary* of Eife at the 
stipulated price during the Time they are in actual service. 

Voted, The Selectmen furnish the said Connnittee with money to hire 
the men. 

Dec. 22, 1777. Voted, That the men that shall l)e called for from this 
Town for the future for a Beinforcement for the Army & for Guards shall 
be paid by the Town a Bf)unty that shall encourage them to inlist, and that 
there be a Connnittee appointed to procure the men whenever there may 
be orders for any. 

March 10, 1778. Voted, The Selectmen provide for the families of those 
in the Continental Army, & also settle with the Committee who was 
api)ointed for tliat purpose. 



87 

March 20, 1773. Voted, To pay the men that marchd with Capt. reiini- 
mau last fall as a Reinforcement for the northern Army from the Time they 
marched to the last day of November, provided they were in the service 
at that time. 

Voled, To supplj"^ the families of those in the Continental Army, agreea- 
ble to a Resolve of the General Court. 

June 22, 1778. Voted, To make up the subaltern's wages equal to a Pri- 
vate Soldier. 

Voted, To pay each soldier from the time they march to the time they 
gitt home, allowing them a daj^'s pay for every twentj'^ miles' travel they 
shall be from home when they leave the service or are discharged. 

Voted, To consider those Persons that was from this Town in the Con- 
tinental service in the year 1776 who marchii out of this State, & that there 
be a Committee chosen to take the matter into consideration & to report 
to the Town at their next annual meeting of what sum those persons are 
worthy off for their sufferings. Then, Colo. Thayer, Maj. Penniman, Captn. 
French, Captn. Ai'nold, & Captn. Sawin, was chosen a Committee for that 
purpose. 

Voled, To allow those persons that was in the Continental Army from 
this Town in the year 1776, who are now in sd army, that engaged for 
before the twentj'-second day of May, 1777, ten pounds being the same 
sum that was voted to those that engaged after said 22d day of May. 

June 5, 1780. Then, it was moved and seconded that the Town .should 
choose a Delegate to meet in convention on Wednesday next for the pur- 
pose of compleating the Constitution or Form of Government. 

Voted, To choose a delegate by written vote. 

Then, the Honbie. Joseph Palmer, Esqr., was chosen for that purpose. 

June 27, 1780. The Familys of such men as shall engage for the Term 
of six months shall be suppy^i by the selectmen with corn, wood or such 
other articles as they stand in need off, which is to be charged & Redacted 
fi'om the wages of that Person, which is to be paid him in corn upon his 
retui'uiug home. 

June 30, 1780. The Committee reported that they had iulisted thirty- 
one men, & that there Avas a prospect of iulisting the other 5 men which 
is wanting to compleat the first 36 men called for, & likewise a part or all 
of the nine men required by the aforesaid Resolve of June 23d. General 
Palmer genei'ously made the same offer to the nine men as he did to the 36 
men, — that was thirty dollars each, for which the thanks of the Town was 
again voted him. 

July 17, 1780. The Town being assembled again, the Committee reported 
a proposal that was agreed to & signed by a uumljer of men, which was as 
follows, viz. : We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, agree to go into 
the publick service for Three months, upon the following conditions, pro- 
vided the Town agree thereto, viz. : We to receive Five hundred Dollars 
Currency in hand, half a bushel of corn per Day, or the value thereof in cur- 
rent money at six months from the date hereof, & also Five hundred Dollars 
more on our return, provided we serve the s<i three months, or in propor- 
tion to the Time of service, the said last 500 Dollars to be increased or 



88 



cliininislied, acconlinc: as Depreciation or Appreciation shall take place. 
Witness our hands this 17th day of July, 1780. N. B. We to receive the 
State's pay & uiileaife, to l)e paid as usual for travel home. 

The Town Ijy a larye majority voted to a,<j;ree to the a])ove proposals. 

Voted, the Selectmen supply the femilys of such soldiers who are now 
gone i^c jroiui; into the Publick service, with money as they may want for 
the support of their fiimilies. 

Voted, such Persons as will lend the Town money may receive Receipts 
therefor from the Selectmen, which receipts shall answer for Taxes on the 
next town tax. 

Sept. 4. I7S(). The Freeholders and other inhabitants of the Town of 
Braintree (|ualitied to vote in the choice of a Governor, Lt. Governor, 
Council and senators, being assembled at the meeting house in the middle 
precinct in siud Town agreeable to the Resolves of the convention June Ifi, 
1780, Proceeded to bring in their votes which are as follows, viz : — 



For Governor. 

Hon. John Hiincock, Esrjr 95 

Hon. James Bowdoin, Esqr 11 

For Lt. Oovemor. 

Hon. James Warren, Esq 80 

Hon. Joseph Palmer, Esq 1 

Hon. James Bowdoin, E?q 1 

Hon. Samuel Adams, Esq 1 

For Council and Senators. 

Hon Thomas Cusbing, Esqr 45 

Hon. Jabez Fisher, Esqr 05 

Hon. Samuel Niles, Esqr 39 



Hon. Cotton Tufts, Ksqr 38 

Hon. Caleb Davis, Esqr 36 

Hon. John Lowel, Es<i 35 

Hon. Benja. While, E>qr 34 

Hon. Joseph Palmer, Esqr 25 

Hon. James Bowdoin, Esqr 27 

Hon. Increase Sumner, Esqr 10 

Hon. Jeremiah I'owel, Es(ir 17 

Hon. John Pitts, Esqr 9 

Hon. Richard Cranch, Esqr 7 

Hon. Solomon Lovel, Esqr 4 

Hon. Benja. Austin, Esqr 6 

Hon. Norton Quincy, Esqr ^ 

Hon. William Cooper, Esqr 2 



April 2, 1781. The Freeholders and other inhabitants of the Town of 
Bralntree ({ualifled to vote in the choice of a Governor, Lieut. Governor, 
Councillors and Senators, agreeable to the Constitution of the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts, being by a Legal warrant for that Purpose 
assembled at the meeting House in the middle Precinct in said Town, 
Proceeded to bring In their votes which are as followeth, viz: — 



Voles for Governor. 

His Excellency John Hancock 35 

The Hon. James Bowdoin 27 

For Lieut. Governor. 

The Hon. Thomas Gushing 25 

The Hon. Benjn. Lincoln 14 

Collo. Azor Orrin 5 

The Iliui. James Warren 4 

For Councillors and Setiators. 
The Hon. Samuel Niles 37 



The Hon. Jabez Fisher 46 

Cotton Tufts, Esqr 37 

Caleb Davis, Es.jr 37 

The Hon. Samuel Adams 34 

The Hon. John Pitts 30 

The Hon. Joseph Palmer 17 

The Hon. Jeremiah Powel 14 

The Hon. Increase t>ummr 15 

John Lowel, Esqr 12 

Richard Cranch, Esqr 9 

The Hon. Benjn. Lincoln 7 

Ebenzr. Wales, Esqr 3 



April 2, 17.S1. Then, Capt". Joseph Baxter, one of the Town Committee 
to hire soldiers for the Continental Army, reported to the town that one 



tore 



89 

John Williams had engaged as a soldier to serve in the army for three 
years, or daring the War, and that he had engaged to serve for the Town 
of Boston, to be reckoned one of their quota of men for the arm_v, and that 
said John Williams did by Law belong to the Town of Braintree, and that 
he, the said Joseph, in behalf of the Town of Braintree, laid in his clame 
for the Priviledge of said Williams that he should answer as a soldier for 
the Town of Braintree, and was opposed by the Committee of the Town 
of Boston, and by said Comm. was drove to every extremity to prove the 
justice of his clame to said Williams, but finally obtained him. Then, the 
CommittJe of Boston Requested of said Baxter fifteen guinies, which they 
had given sd John Williams as a bounty. Said Baxter reports that he 
denyed complying with said Request, but told the Committee that he 
wanted to lay the afare before his Town to act upon as they should think 
Proper, said Baxter desiring to Know the minds of the minds of the Town 
upon that afare. The Vote was Put whether the Town would order that 
the said Boston Committee should have their Fifteen Guinies Refunded 
back to them by the Town of Braintree, and passed in the negative. 

Sept. 10, 1781. Voted, That the sum of Four Hundred Pounds be 
assessed upon the Polls and Estates within this Town for the Purpose of 
procuring the Town's quota of Beef requii-ed for the army. 

April 1, 1782. The Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of 
Braintree, qualified agreeable to the Constitution of this Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts to vote in the choice of Governor, Lieut. Governor, Coun- 
cillors, & Senators, being by a Legal Warrant for that purpose asseml:)led 
at the Meeting House in the Middle Precinct in said Town, Proceeded to 
Bring in their Votes, which are as foUoweth, viz.: — 



Votes for Governor. 

His Excelloncy John Hancock 47 

The Hon. James Bowdoin 47 



For Lieut. Governor. 

The Hon. Thomas dishing 20 

The Hon. Joseph Palmer 24 



For Councillors tfc Senators. 

The Hon. Samuel Niles , 20 

The Hon. Jahez Fisher 23 

The Hon. Cotton Tufts 23 

The Hon. Jeremli. Powel 9 

The Hon. John Pitts 9 

The Hon. Samuel Adams 15 

The Hon. Increase Sumner 12 

Samuel Austin, Esqr 12 

Thomas Penniman, Esqr 14 



1808. Town votes to pay those Avho inlist under President's call for one 
hundred thousand. 

181-t. Town votes to pay soldiers in actual service. 



APPENDIX D. — PART IL— NOTE 1. 

1783. Town appoints Committee upon the Act of the General Court, 
regulating the time "included in the Lord's Day." 

1784. Selectmen authorized to make the "Best Market of the certifi- 
cate money of the town in their hands." 



90 

1786. Committee appointed to prepare instructions for Representative, 
and Report articles as •riven in text. Same year an Aims House is 
projecteil. 

1787. Anotlior Couimittee of Instruction to Representative Appointed, 
and then Reported in Puljlic Print, as follows (a Copj' of which was served 
upon Representative) : 

Skpt. 25, 178G. 
To Colo J:' Ebkxkzeu Thayer: 

Sir, — This Town liaving made Clioice of you to represent lluin in tlie 
Great and General Court this present year, appreliend it their indispensa- 
ble Dutj' as well as undoubted ri.iijht to instruct you relative to some verj"^ 
important matters wliich ought to be so far a rule of your political con- 
duct, as we have but just immergd from the horrors of a most tedious and 
unnatural war and taken Rank amoijg the Royal Powers of the World, or 
ever had entered the possession of that darling fi-eedom which cost us 
almost everything that Avas dear. The Clouds are gathering over our 
heads pregnant with the most gloomy aspect. We abhor and detest 
violent measures. To fly to clubs or arms, to divert the impending ruin 
the consequences of whicli would render us Easy Victims to Foreign and 
inveterate foes. No as Loyal Subjects & Citizens inflamed with true 
Patriotism we feel ourselves cheerfully willing to lend our aid at all times 
in Supporting the dignity of Government but inasmuch as there are 
numerous Grievances or intoleral)le Burtliens by some means or other 
lying on tlie good subjects of this republic Our eyes under Heaven, are 
upon tlie Legislature of this Commonwealth and their names will shine 
Brighter in tlie American Annals by preserving the invaluable Liberties of 
their own People than if they were to carry the Terror of their arms as 
far as Gibraltar. We therefore under these considerations do instruct you 
that in the next session you give your close attention and use your utmost 
Etlbrts that the following grievances and unnecessary Burthens be 
redressed, viz : — 

First — that the Public Salarys of this Commonwealth be reduced in an 
Equitable manner. We feel ourselves willing that every Public officer 
sliould receive a Quanttnn Meruit but not an Extravagant Salary and also 
that the numl)er of Salary men be reduced. 

2'iJly — That the Court of Common Pleas and the General Sessions of 
the Peace ha removed in perpetuam rei memoriam. 

;jrdiy — That the money raised by Impost and Excise be ai)i)ropriated to 
paj' our Foreign Debt. 

4tbiy : We are of opinion tliat there are unreasonable Grants made to 
some of the olHcers of Government. 

r,tiiiy — We object against the mode adopted for Collecting and paying 
the Last Tax. 

G"ily : We Inimbly recjuest that there may be such Laws compilii as may 
crush or at least put proper check or restraint on that order of Gentlemen 
denominated Lawyers, the constitution of whose modern Conduct appears 
to us to tend rather to the destruction than the preservation of this 
('i)iiimoiiweallii. 



91 

yttil}'. That the Goueral Court be removed from Boston. 

gtbiy — That Real aiicl Personal Estate be a Tender for all debts when 
calld for provided the Interest be punctually paid. 

9tuiy. That certain premiums be granted to encourage our own Manu- 
factures. 

lOthiy — That if the above grievances cannot be redressd without a 
revision of Constitution, in that case for that to take place. 

llthiy — It is our earnest Request that every Town Clerk by a Register of 
Deeds for the same Town. 

The foregoing instructions were Read this day in Town meeting and the 
Town then Voted that their Clerk should serve their Representative with 
a Copie of the same and that he record them in the Town Book and that 
they be Published in the Publick Print. 

1789. Voted to employ a school-master to "teach English as well as 
Latin." 

1790. Agents appointed to oppose division of the town. 

1791. Town authorizes a committee to examine accounts of a town 
officer, and they report " a falling short." Treasurer is authorized to sell 
continental money "for what it will fetch." 

1792. Committee chosen to make full settlement witli "the town of 
Quincy" and to oppose "division of the South Precinct." 

1793. Voted to stop distillation of " rye into spirits!" 

1793. Eirst town meeting held after incorporation of Randolph. 

1794. Votes to be reanuexed to Suffolk County. 

1795. Town refuses again to send representative to General Court. 



APPENDIX D. — NOTE 2. 

Whitney, page 45, says, " Capt. Vinton's company, in the Revolutionary 
struggle, was marched to Cambridge for the defence of the place. This 
company afterwards went to New York, but many of its members died 
through fatigue." 

Vinton Memorial, page 59, states that John Vinton "commanded a com- 
pany of minute-aien" who marched from Braiutree, belonging to the 
regiment of Col. Benjamin Lincoln, afterwards General (Lincoln), upon 
the "Lexington Alarm." — Mass. Archiv s. 

Vinton Memorial, page 77, says of Stephen Penniman, "He was captain 
of a -company of militia, called to Dorchester Heights in March, 1776." 

Vinton Memorial, page 55, gives an account of Col. Seth Turner, wiio 
removed to Braiutree, South Precinct, about 1751. "He was," says Vinton, 
" a true patriot, and was much in his country's service. He served in the 
old French war, and was at the taking of Quel)ec in 1761. He also 
served in the war of the Revolution. The ' Turner Genealogy ' saj^s he 
served through that war, but the proof is not found in the Massachusetts 
archives. Very few men served through that war. It appears, however, 
from the archives, that a company of sixty men, all from Braiutree, 



92 



enlisted under his orders in the befrinnina: of May, 1775, and served eight 
months. This was one of two companies that went from tlie town of 
Hraintree at the same time, — a fact liii^hly credital)le to that ancient and 
most I'espectable town." 



APPENDIX 1). — NOTE 3. 

Charles Francis Adams, in his Town Ilall Oration, says of Braintree's 
public men, " She has had manj' not unknown beyond her l)orders, — many 
not prized less because of virtues known only within them, — learned and 
faithful pastors, eminent lawyers, liberal merchants, honest statesmen, 
brave and accomplished soldiers." Whitney gives a list of eighty gradu- 
ates of Harvard College. Hancock finds "John Bass" a "great mathe- 
matical genius." Arthur St. Clair, "distinguished general of the Revolu- 
tion," resident 17(53. Richard Cranch, from England, came to Braiutree 
1750; died liere, "distinguished for piety," etc., Judge of Suft'olk Com- 
mon Pleas. Wm. Cranch, Chief Justice District Court of Columbia, and 
an houest patriot. Thos. Phillips, eminent physician, etc., etc. 



APPENDIX D. — NOTE 4. 



MINISTERS OF UKAIN TUI.K. — FIKST, SECOND, AND THIRD PRECINCTS. 



Wm. Thompson, ordained 

Henry Flint, teacher . . . . 

Moses Fiske, settled . . , . 

Joseph Marsh, orilained 

John Hancock, ordained 

Lenuiel Briant, ordained 

Antony Wibird 

and was minister when the town was divided. 



1G39 
1040 
1672 
1709 
1726 
1745 
1755 



First Congregational Church of Braiutree was organized 1707. 
Hugh Adams was ordained ...... 1707 



Samuel Niles 
Ezra Weld 
Sylvester Sage 
R. S. Storrs 
Edward A. Park 



1711 
17(;2 
1807 
1811 
1831 



APPENDIX I). 

CONDITIONS OF THE SEXTON. 

Viiteil, That the Intermission on the Lord's day be the same as the last 
year, and the Following was Voted as the Conditions : The Sexou shall be 



93 

obliged to comply with the eusuiug year, viz., Take good care of the 
House ; sweep it once everj' mouth, especially the first week after each 
Town meeting ; shovell the snow from the doors and horse blocks to the 
steps of the Doors ; ring the Bell on Lords day, public towu meeting, and 
Lecture day ; Toll the Bell at Funerals, and carry the burying cloth to the 
house where the Funeral is to be from ; and clean the snow out of the 
garret aud dust the seats and pews, &c. Provided the person who under- 
takes the Business shall not comply with the above, he shall not be enti- 
tled to more for his services than the Towu shall vote him next March. 
The office of Sexon was then put up for the lowest bidder. Capt. Jona- 
than Thayer liid it of at Ten Dollars, upon the above conditions. 



APPENDIX D.— NOTE 5. 

From '■'■South Braintree Breeze." 

RKMINISCKNCES OF THE WAR OF 1812. 

Dear Editor, — Thinking the following incident would uot be uninterest- 
ing to some of your readers, I present it as a reminiscence of au eventful 
Sabbath in my boyhood : — 

About half a century ago, before the aftairs of our country were in tlieir 
present prosperous and settled condition, our quiet towu was thrown into 
a panic of excitement b}'^ the announcemeut that the British had entered 
the harbor at Cohasset, I think, or somewhere thereabouts. 

The announcement was made by Col. Clarke, of Randolph, who, with 
warlike mien aud hurried gesticulation, entered Dr. Storrs's church during 
service, and cried out, " Our country is invaded ! Our country is invaded ! " 
and issued the order that preparations should be at once made to meet aud 
drive back the enemy. This outcry caused the utmost consternation to 
prevail, — the women expressing fear and anxiety, the men assuming a 
brave, determined attitude, but all uniting in that innate sentimeut of 
patriotism aud love of country which enabled the wife to give up her 
husband, the mother her child, the maid her lover, to aid in the protection 
of their rights and the promotion of freedom. 

Braintree had a vrell-trained military company under the command of 
Capt. Ralph Arnold, and in obedience to orders, appeared armed aud 
equipped on the green uear the old town-house. Provisions suitable for 
camp life, aud in quantities sufficient to last a week or more, w^ere supplied 
from a store in the neighborhood. Everythiug being in readiness, the troops 
commenced their march, taking a northerly route. Upon reaching Ferry 
Point Bridge, they were commanded to halt by the tollman. The captain, 
being somewhat incensed at the interruption, said, "I have come out to 
repulse the enemy, and since you are the first that I have met, I shall order 
you to retreat," which the tolhnan did with much precipitancy, and the 
company resumed its march without further ado. Arriving at the scene 
of action, what was their disappointment at seeing the enemy sailiug out of 



94 

the harbor, after setting fire to a ship and committing several other 
devastations ! 

When the excitement had susidcd, tliey found that tlie women had 
been bus_v making lint from every available piece of linen, and the men 
other preparations, in anticipation of a fierce strnggle. Leaving some of 
our company with the Randolph riflemen to guard the coast for a few 
days, the remainder returned home the same night, much fatigued, yet 
thankful that a day commenced so ominously should end so peacefullj-. 

B. 



APPENDIX D.— NOTE 6. 

Vinton, i)ago 194, says of B. V. French, "The idea of a cemetery in the 
vicinity of Boston like Pere La Chaise at Paris, originated with Mr. French. 
He examined the grounds, and in connection with Mr. Brimmer, the 
owner, laid the {jlan which resulted in Mount Auburn Cemeter3\ It was 
at his suggestion, moreover, that the old l)urying-ground at Braintree, 
which was formerly a disgrace to the town, was extended by the addition 
of more laud, and fitted up with its present graceful appointments. 



APPENDIX D. — NOTE 7. 

COPY OF WARRANT. 

Jan'y 3, 1790. The following is a Copy of Warrants as T{eturn<i. 
Suflblk ss. To either of the Constables of the Town of Braintree, in said 
[SKAL. ] County — Greeting 

You are in the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Directed 
to warn and give Notice uuto David Smith, Labourer, Kuth Smith, widow, 
Joshua Briggs, Increase Bates, Jonathan Dannnon, Jonathan Derbe, Sam- 
uel Hunt, Joseph Peaks, Amnion White, Capt". Shul)iel Cook of Braintree 
in the county of Suflblk, Laborours or Trausaut Persons, who have Lately 
come into this Town for the purpose of abiding therein not having 
obtained the Town's Consent therefor, that you and each of you whose 
names are above Avritten, depart the Limits thereof with their children 
and all others under their cair or Command within fifteen days and of this 
Precept and your doings thereon, you are to make Return unto the ortice 
of the Clerk of this Town within twenty days next coming that further 
Proceedings may l)e had in the Premises as the Law directs. Given under 
our hands and seals this twenty fourth day of December one Thousand 
seven hundred eighty-nine. 



STEPHEN PENNIMAN, ^ 

JOHN HALL, r Selectmen. 

JOSEPH WHITE JUNi\,) 



95 

Suffolk ss. Braintree January Ist 1790. 

lu obedience to this precept I have warned and given notice to the 
witliin named Persons to depart the Limits of said Town as witliin 
directed. 

JAMES HOLBI^OOK, Constable. 

A True Copy, 

Attest, Eben'r Thayer Jr., Town Clerk. 
Jan. 4, 1870. 



MOV 6 1900 




LE Je '07 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 



BRAINTREE, MASS., 



JULY 4, 1876. 



FEINTED BY ORDER OF THE TOWN. 



BOSTON : 
ALFRED MUDGE & SON", PRINTERS 
34 School Street. 

1877. 



'L 



